Mother’s grief for son killed by drink driver – ‘I’ll never be able to hold him again’

Tears streamed down the cheek of a mother whose son was killed by a drink driver. With pain etched on Claire Chapman’s face, she spoke about how her beloved son Harry was killed just weeks after celebrating his 21st birthday.

He had planned to go to Blackpool to celebrate with his friends and was also preparing for his sister Lola’s 18th birthday. But a reckless driver who was twice over the legal limit – and traveling on the wrong side of Aldridge Road in Streetly – hit Harry’s car as he gave his best friend a lift home.

“I’m not going to be able to hold him and kiss him ever again,” the mother said, adding: “Lola can’t spend her 18th with her brother, Lola can’t spend any day with her. and brother

“I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like a living hell.”

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He had been bowling with his sister and picked up his best friend on the way home to organize his birthday trip. She said she then took her boyfriend home – who lives just seven minutes away,

“I waited for him to come home,” she said, adding that at around 11.15pm, her daughter suggested they go out to look for him. “I said ‘no, he’s 21, he’s complaining that I swallowed him, he’s a big boy, we’re waiting.’

“So we went to bed, I put a hot water bottle in his bed and my head hadn’t even touched the pillow and there was a really loud bang on the door.” Claire said the moment she realized the police were outside, her heart “stopped” because she “knew something terrible had happened”.

The police asked her to accompany them in their car, and she drove “past a sea of ​​blue, knowing that it was my child on foot.”

“He had CPR from the police, they tried for seven minutes to bring him back and he was on his way to the QE and I felt sick in the car, I felt like I would never have traveled at that speed.” Claire admitted she was “in denial” at the time and even called Harry’s boss to say she wouldn’t be in the next day.

At the hospital, they were told Harry needed an operation and she “begged to see him”. “There was blood everywhere, he was in a neck brace, I actually lost my footing and fell,” she said.

“They took him into surgery and I didn’t see him again until morning.” Claire said her son was in an induced coma and was given “the day to say goodbye”.

Sharing details of the heartbreaking scenes in the hospital room, she said: ‘I spoke to him and gave him his last kiss. It was a goodbye that should never have happened.”

Loss remains an open wound. Every morning, she says, she opens Harry’s curtains, a constant reminder of the life stolen from him.

“Wish he could make a difference”

She is sharing her heartbreaking story, including an emotional video, to stop others getting behind the wheel while under the influence of drink and drugs, especially during Euro 2024, which starts on Friday.

Claire says Harry would be proud of her and Lola for being part of the drink drive awareness campaign.

“If it can save a life, he would hold his head up,” she said. “He’d like to be able to make a difference, even if he’s not here.”

She appealed: “If you see someone who has had too much to drink and something happens, the blood is on your hands too. You could take the keys from someone, you know they’ve had too much to drink, they’re not. In controlling the vehicle, they will understand when they are awake. Just to take their keys and stop another senseless death.

“There’s no excuse, you’re going out to have a good time. Take a little extra, drink a little, have money to take a taxi and then it’s a good time, as opposed to being kicked out. their bed and must give permission to turn off a life support machine for a child.”

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