Heart Breaking News

Tragedy at Beachy Head: Shocked parents from around the world flood five-year-old's website with messages of sympathy

By Sam Greenhill, Julie Moult and Luke Salkeld
Last updated at 1:46 PM on 03rd June 2009

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Tragic five-year-old Sam Puttick's website has been flooded with messages of sympathy after his parents leapt off Beachy Head clutching his body.

Hundreds of stunned parents from around the world have posted comments, many of whom have lost children themselves.

Sam's parents Neil and Kazumi Puttick committed suicide consumed with grief after their little boy - who was crippled since a car crash in 2005 - died of meningitis last week.

The cheery youngster was their world, and the devoted couple simply could not bear to live without him.

Scroll down to see a video of Sam...

Sam Puttick before he was paralysed from the neck down after he was hit by a car and, right, after returning home from hospital following the accident

Sam was just 18 months old when he was the victim of a car crash which left him paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair.

Mr and Mrs Puttick gave up their careers to devote themselves to the care of their fragile little boy.

But last week Sam lost a brief battle against pneumococcal meningitis, contracting the disease on Tuesday and dying peacefully at home on Friday evening, with his devastated father, 34, and Japanese-born mother, 44, at his bedside.

They simply could not face life without him and, last Saturday, left an 'extremely emotional' typewritten note and drove 150 miles to the East Sussex cliffs and flung themselves to their death.

By lunchtime today there were almost 500 heartfelt messages of condolence on Stuff4Sam, the website set up by his parents after the car crash left him a quadriplegic when he was only 16 months old.

Family friend Hugh Huddy said: 'They were an amazing family and we are so devastated by the news. The response to the Stuff4Sam website has been incredible.

'The number of posts that have come in from fathers and mothers and parents of children who have lost their children, and who wanted to share their condolences, has totally stunned us.'

An update on the website reads: 'Thank you all for your overwhelming love and support, all your kind words are greatly appreciated. People always say how messages of support are a comfort and they truly are.

'Many of you have also asked where you can make donations and we know of no better place than Spinal Research. We will update the site in due course with details of how we wish to remember the Puttick family.'

Sam, pictured with mother Kazumi, 44, and father Neil, 34, was discharged from hospital and died at home after contracting meningitis

Sam, whose brain worked normally despite his body being confined to a wheelchair, was the 'happiest boy in the world', according to his parents who were immensely proud of his bravery.

He always wore a smile on his face and they were optimistic that a 'miracle' scientific breakthrough would one day allow Sam to walk again.

In the meantime, they used Stuff4Sam to raise money for their little boy and keep him cheerful. A 'Hi Sam!' page on his website featured dozens of friends and supporters posing in pictures of themselves wherever they travelled, holding the greeting on a piece of paper.

The cheery five-year-old was physically disabled but there was nothing wrong with his brain, and he derived enormous pleasure from seeing his name in all the pictures.

The 'Hi Sam' photographs were snapped in places including the Arctic, Antarctica, Afghanistan, Borneo and Newfoundland.

Another part of the site is dedicated to the legions of Sam's fans who rowed, ran and cycled to raise ?30,000 to buy him special equipment to stimulate and help him develop. The website also has links to the Christopher Reeve Foundation.

In a post in 2006, Mr Puttick explained: 'Ever since the injury last year we have been trying to get Sam assessed to use a Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) bicycle.

'It was pioneered in America with Christopher Reeve and his physician Dr McDonald and basically stimulates Sam's legs with electric currents to rotate the cycle legs and provide Sam with the only "exercise" he will be able to get. Basically no child in the UK does this and in America there are only a handful.'

The Puttick family home in Brokerswood, above and below, was specially adapted to meet Sam's care needs

In another post, Sam's father wrote: 'Sam is quadriplegic and can't breathe as a result of the car accident. He was a normal, healthy, active boy before but because of someone's careless driving, he is now as he is.

'We are so very proud of how he has survived, who he now is and how he continues to smile and be so damn strong in spite of everything. He is simply amazing.'

A friend of the Putticks, Alex Knott, wrote a few months ago: 'Most importantly Sam is living life to the full. He has grown into a happy, intelligent, strong three-and-a-half-year-old that has survived a devastating injury and is amongst the few people in the world that are truly extraordinary.'

Sam's little body was found in a zipped-up rucksack alongside his parents' bodies.

A second rucksack nearby was filled with his toys.

Enlarge

Yesterday, as police said the couple had committed suicide consumed with grief, horrified friends told the unbearably sad story of how the family's once-perfect life was torn apart.

After meeting at university in the UK and marrying 12 years ago, Mr and Mrs Puttick moved into a cottage in the chocolate-box village of Bratton in Wiltshire.

With a trout stream flowing through the back gardens, the row of cottages was once named by a national newspaper as one of the most idyllic places to live in Britain.

A neighbour said: 'They were the perfect neighbours, they really were. They were deeply in love with each other and when Sam came along, they lived for him. When he was born they were so happy and brought cookies round to all the neighbours.

'Neil used to walk around the garden showing Sam the wild ducks and rabbits. Sam was such a sweetheart and he loved it. He was so cute, he used to giggle with delight, and never seemed to cry.

'I never once heard them have an argument either. They did everything together. They loved the garden and spent years doing up their house, converting the loft, to make it the perfect family home.

This people carrier was towed away from the scene

'Neil was caring, calm, gentle and loving, and his voice was soft. He used to work long hours in London but came home every night at 7pm to his family. Kazumi was petite and shy, but utterly devoted to Neil and Sam.

'She used to take him to mother-and-toddler singing sessions at the church. If you could imagine bottling up the perfect, dream marriage, that was what they had.'

Then one day in 2005, their lives were shattered in a split second. Mrs Puttick, who worked as a Japanese translator at the Honda plant in Swindon, was driving Sam through the Somerset lanes to visit friends when a Volvo coming the other way careered into their path.

According to one report, the Volvo driver was distracted by her dogs in the back.

In the resulting smash, Mrs Puttick broke her legs and her pelvis, while her son suffered devastating injuries.

Two passing doctors, both anaesthetists, stopped to help, bringing Sam back from the brink of death twice.

Sue Capon, centre, who runs a park near the Puttick's home, is consoled by two colleagues as they place flowers outside the house

But he had a catastrophic spinal injury akin to the one that paralysed Superman actor Christopher Reeve, and then contracted MRSA while being treated in hospital.

The family moved from their cottage, which is down a narrow sloped path, to a more suitable house seven miles away, the ?1m Wishing Well Farm, in the village of Brokerswood.

They fitted it out with a hospital suite and physiotherapy equipment using insurance money, Mr Puttick gave up his job working for a charity in London and a small army of carers was hired to work shifts around the clock.

Sam was unable to breathe by himself and was fed with oxygen but had a specially adapted wheelchair that he steered by blowing through an air tube. Although he was physically disabled, there was nothing wrong with his brain.

One charity site devoted to the cheery youngster even featured a 'Hi Sam' page on which supporters posted pictures of them greeting him, from Antarctica and Afghanistan to Borneo and Newfoundland.

A video of Sam playing a Lego computer game was also posted on the internet just three weeks ago.

The toddler's infectious smile appears in a series of heartbreaking family photos.

One shows him window shopping with his mother, and in another his proud parents flank his wheelchair with all three grinning.

The bodies of Neil, Kazumi and Sam Puttick are taken away after being found at the bottom of cliffs at Beachy Head, Sussex

Sue Capon, 51, whose home in Brokerswood Country Park is opposite the Putticks' house, said: 'They were totally, totally devoted to Sam, who was adorable. Sam would often come over to the park in his wheelchair.

'He was a very happy child despite everything. His favourite thing would be to come and eat chocolate cake in our cafe.'

She added: 'I can only assume that losing Sam was just too much for them. All of us here are just shattered. We feel very honoured that we were friends with them.'

Another neighbour, Sue Hawkins, 41, said: 'Sam would visit our orphaned lambs and he used to name them, bless him. His parents adored Sam and he was all they ever talked about.'

A spokesman for the Bath and North East Somerset NHS Trust said: 'Samuel Puttick had been receiving treatment for pneumococcal meningitis at the Paediatric Intensive Children's Unit at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

'When it became clear that Sam had no hope of recovery from his severe infection, he was discharged to his family home on Friday, May 29, at his parents request to die peacefully.

Rescue services at the scene recovered the three bodies, including Sam's found inside a rucksack

'He was certified dead at his home by a doctor at approximately 8pm that evening. We offer our sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of this family.'

Mr Puttick, from Frome in Somerset, has elderly parents whom police were yesterday believed to be trying to reach on holiday abroad.

Detective Inspector Ian Williams, of Sussex Police, said: 'I am satisfied that Samuel's grieving parents Neil and Kazumi appear to have taken their own lives. This is a tragic incident and we extend our sympathies to their family and to the large number of friends and carers affected.'

The 600ft cliffs are popular with walkers - but are also a notorious suicide spot

A spokesman for Dover Coastguard said: 'It is really horrific and incredibly sad. In my four years with the Coastguard, I have never known anything like this.'

On Monday forensic experts were lowered by a helicopter winch to examine the scene, before the bodies were taken up on Coastguard stretchers.

A recovery truck towed away the family's caravanette away.

The suicide spot lies close to Belle Tout lighthouse. The clifftop at Beachy Head is lined by small crosses placed where others have fallen or jumped.

In 1997 a man took his children, aged three and nine months, over the cliffs to their deaths after he had attacked his wife.

In 1990, Elizabeth Kentish drove her two children over the cliffs.

The body of her daughter Emma, two, was found strapped in the car. Her other daughter, five-year-old Kate, was found in the sea.