Mum’s anguish after losing nine-year-old Kairon in A90 crash

EVERY night when Laura McKay goes to bed she clutches her boy’s little pyjamas tight to her chest and weeps until she falls into a fitful sleep.

It is only nine days since her nine-year-old son Kairon was killed by a car as he bent to tie his shoelaces by the side of a road near Longforgan, and the pain is sharp and fresh,

“I want him to know I’ll always love him,” whispers Laura. “Somehow I have to go on without seeing my lovely son grow up.”

Laura’s world collapsed the moment she answered a knock on her door to find a policewoman on her doorstep.

The officer’s tearstained face was all Laura had to see to know she’d lost her precious boy.

“I could see the woman officer had been crying and I knew something terrible had happened,” she said.

“My world ended at that point and I am still struggling to believe Kairon has passed away.”

Kairon was looking for a sweet shop with two pals when tragedy struck at the side of the A90.

“He and his mum were visiting friends in Inchture, Perthshire, when the boys went out to play. Kairon had got a new skateboard which he kept at his grandparents’ home while it was being completed” Laura said.

“The wheels and tracks had not been fitted yet.”

Kairon chose a picture of praying hands with rosary beads for the trendy board’s design, and Laura has been left wondering if it was some kind of portent of the tragedy that was about to unfold.

“His skateboard had a picture of God and the clouds which he chose himself. In some way I wonder if that was meant because of what has happened to him,” she said.

Now that skateboard will rest by his coffin at his funeral, along with a beloved toy frog he snuggled up to every night.

Laura speaking about the tragedy to a newspaper for the first time reveals she was so grief stricken after the accident that she could not formally identify Kairon.

That was left to her parents Hector, 64, and Moira, 60, from Stanley, Perthshire.

They too are utterly lost without their loving grandson.

The A90 near the scene of the accident (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)

“My dad took Kairon fishing, taught him to ride his bike, took him everywhere and doted on him,” said Laura. “They were like the Werthers Original advert. The bond between them was so strong.

“My parents and my brothers, Hector and Callum, are hurting so much because they doted on him.”

The last few days have been utter anguish for the devoted mum.

Last week police took her on a sad pilgrimage to the lonely spot where her child lost his life. She clutched flowers from family and friends and placed them by the road.

And in the midst of her grief she has had to cope with being the target of cruel internet trolls, who have posted heartless comments questioning why Kairon was playing out late on a busy road.

Despite her loss, Laura insists she would never have wanted to wrap Kairon in cotton wool.

“Some people made painful comments on Facebook asking why Kairon had been out at night,” said Laura, 33, a support worker from Almondbank, Perthshire. “But he was going to his friend’s house along the road.

“He had left at 7.30pm to play on the pavements with strict instructions to be back at 9.30pm. I had no idea they would go off to buy sweets.

“I am so angry that he wandered off but I never want him to know that.

“You try to give your child a little freedom and the confidence to grow up and learn.

“Like any other parent I worried every time he went out to play. You are told to give them a bit of responsibility to turn them into responsible adults, and now this.

“I’m angry with myself for being angry, and hurt and angry about things no one could have foreseen or stopped.

“It’s a very hard path to walk when your children die before you. My heart goes out to every parent who has to do this.”

The agony she is going through is clear in her voice as she quietly adds: “We had so many plans of what we would do as he grew up but none of that is possible now.”

In the midst of her nightmare, caring Laura has nothing but compassion for that police officer sent to chap her door.

“Being called out to a child hit by a car must be so hard to cope with,” she says. “She could have been a mum herself and that would have made it harder.”

But that knock on the door will never leave Laura. It was the moment her world changed for ever.Support pours in for LauraFOLLOWING Kairon’s death, Laura has been swamped with messages of condolence, flowers and offers of support.

A fund-raising website brought in more than £800 for the 33-year-old support worker from Almondbank, Perthshire, in a matter of hours.

“I was overwhelmed that people cared so much,” she said.

“I didn’t know if I should accept it but others pointed out that it is good to let others help.”To make a donation towards Kairon’s funeral, please click here.Laura has also revealed she chatted to a pal about how awful it must be to lose a child in the days leading up to the accident…another strange nod to the awful tragedy that was about to engulf her life.

“I was just saying to a friend only the day before Kairon was killed that it must be so hard to lose a child,” she said.

“I never thought the next day I would lose my lovely son.

“I doted on him and he was my world.

“I don’t know when I will accept this happened to my boy.”

Police Scotland said a blue Ford car was involved in the accident.

They have appealed for witnesses to contact them on 101.

While officers continue their inquiries, Laura continues to grieve, a raw process that comes with “no guide on how to cope”.

“Nobody knows how to grieve when they lose a child,” she added. “I feel like I am going through a terrible nightmare and that I will wake up from it.”