AFTER being touched by the story of a family who lost their 12-month-old son to sepsis, a former tattoo artist from Chippenham took it upon himself to draw their boys together for the first time.

Mike Hughes, of Cepen Park North, contacted the Mead family in Cornwall after stumbling across their story on Facebook to ask if they would like him to draw their sons Arthur and William together.

“Melissa’s story about William appeared on by Facebook news feed one day and I have a three-year-old son called Hayden, so it really hit home,” the 40-year-old said.

“I had drawn something similar for a friend who lost her son a few years ago, so I wanted to offer Melissa the same opportunity and she said yes.

“She sent over two photos of her boys and I spent around eight to ten hours drawing the portrait. She seemed very happy with the outcome and we have sent each other a few messages in between her receiving it at the start of the year.

“I think it’s really important that you have pictures of all your children together, and when you don’t and something like this happens, it’s heartbreaking.”

An NHS report found a series of failures contributed to William’s death and his parents Melissa and Paul have since received an apology from health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Sepsis kills 37,000 people in England each year and the Meads want more people to learn the symptoms, of sepsis which include looking bluish and pale, appearing lethargic, abnormally cold to the touch, breathing fast, rashes that do not fade, high temperature and sunken eyes.

Writing on her A Mother Without a Child Facebook page, Mrs Mead said: “Thank you Mike Hughes, from Broken Halo Tattoos, it is beautiful. When I opened it I was just taken aback by my little boys faces, together. And for me, it’s an image I haven’t seen of William, and that’s really something special.”