Distraught Beverley Dixon was determined to save her son's friends from drugs when he died from a heroin overdose.

So she is making them attend an inquest into his death, when the final hours of his life will he outlined.

Sports-mad David Dixon, 16, turned into a dishevelled junkie within months of falling prey to pushers.

Now, seven sixth-formers from Burnside and Willington High School, on Tyneside, will sit through the hearing describing David's demise.

They will then relive the ordeal with younger pupils, spreading the anti-drugs message.

David's mother, Beverley, of Walker, Newcastle, said: "I don't want David to have died in vain. If, because of this, one person says no to drugs, it will be worth it."

The inquest on Tyneside today will hear how David was found dead in a North Shields flat in January this year, just one week after he began injecting heroin.

His mother sent him to relatives in County Durham, thinking he could kick his habit, but he ended up in a flat in Newcastle and plunged further into drug abuse.

Beverley, 40, said: "The awful truth every parent must know is that teenagers from happy, loving homes can end up like this too."