WHEN Sheila Gamble's 16-year-old son Ian died after being stabbed, she feared the grief would send her mad.
Ian had suffered the fatal wounding as he left a family party in Barnard Castle in 1996 to buy a pizza.
The tragedy was exacerbated by the fact that eight years earlier Sheila had lost her eldest son, Darren, at the same age, when he and a friend were overcome by fumes as they fell asleep while running a car engine in a garage to keep warm.
When Ian died, police assigned the family Victim Support worker Charles Chatterton, who kept them together and helped them through the painful court case.
After a lengthy trial, the teenager accused of the stabbing was acquitted.
Sheila, from Barnard Castle, said: "There was a strain on the whole family. I wouldn't have coped without Victim Support. I would have just lost my senses. There are lots of things that go through your head.
"You think you're going round the twist with the things that are going on in your mind. But when there's someone to speak to, saying 'this is a normal reaction because of this reason', it makes it OK.
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