The sadness of tragedy brother

Lewis Young, seven, lost his brother, Jon-Paul, on June 15 last year, and is now facing his second Christmas without him.

Jon-Paul, 14, died playing on mounds of industrial sand at the Newport premises of the South Wales Sand & Gravel Company.

Now Lewis, of Elgar Avenue, Alway, just wishes his brother would come back. His mother, Anna Young, said: "I've got to take him out to see Jon-Paul's star at night. We've named a star after his brother and he likes going to look at that every night before he goes to sleep."

Mrs Young nominated Lewis for a special Christmas gift in our annual toy giveaway because he has suffered so much over the past year.

Nominations for the giveaway are now closed, and youngsters who are set to get an early present from Santa are invited to a special tea party at Woolworth in Newport this afternoon.

Mrs Young said: "He keeps asking me if Jon-Paul is coming home at Christmas, and I can't look him in the face and say 'no'.

"Lewis has lost his only brother, and the only way he can get through it is by drawing pictures of him and writing little stories about him.

"He's always saying to me what they used to do together and he keeps asking me when he can see him. He's distant without him.

"He's losing his hair with all the stress - he sits there and you know he's thinking about him."

Jon-Paul suffocated when the sand mound he was playing on slipped around him and buried him.

Lewis' favourite teacher at Alway Infants School is Kath Boycott - because she used to teach Jon-Paul as well.

She said: "Considering all that's happened he's kept extremely well. If he needs to talk we're always there for him.

"Jon-Paul was a smashing boy, a lovely character. He had a great sense of humour and always had a joke or two.

"They are very different children, but Lewis has done well this year. He doesn't talk about his brother much."

*PICTURED: Lewis Young with his mum Anna