Many of us look forward to Boxing Day and all of the good memories it will bring. Unfortunately, for one family, Boxing Day brought about a tragedy they will never forget.

It happened when Darren Midgley and his wife were preparing to celebrate Boxing Day. They went to get up their young son, 16-month-old Jack, but unfortunately, he was dead in his cot.

As you can imagine, this was a nightmare scenario that the family is still trying to piece together and even now, they admit that they will never be the same again. Darren spoke about the moment when their world fell apart, saying:

“I just cracked his door open and it was perfectly silent, so I walked over to his little cot.

“But, as soon as I put my hand on his back it was cool.

“What I saw at that point, I knew my baby boy had gone.”

Cheryl Szulhan, the mother, said that her son was a happy, healthy, and well-loved little boy when he went to bed that evening. Unfortunately, he would not live until the morning.

At this point, they still don’t have the answers as to what happened that led to this tragedy. They did say that they were having a nice Christmas, and it was never expected that this would happen.

After the loss, the family was referred to the Martin House in Manchester. That organization provides bereavement support to individuals who have just lost a child.

Martin House also has special cool rooms, where they can care for the children that have passed away and give families an opportunity to go in and see them. It provides the last memories they will have.

Jack stayed at the Martin House for five days until a postmortem was done. The family was able to create keepsakes to remember their boy while they were at the facility.

Darren said: “It felt like we’d been thrown into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in a storm at night with nowhere to go, and Martin House provided an anchor for us.

“We knew Jack was in a bedroom in his Christmas pyjamas and looked after, where the staff would talk to him and put on his night light.

“The foundations of happiness our family was built on are gone.

“Our lives will never be the same again, but Martin House is still here to support us.

“Our bereavement counsellor at Martin House is helping us through our overwhelming grief, supporting us to find coping mechanisms for day-to-day life.”