The grieving mother of a teenage meningitis victim told her "perfect" son she loved him as he was wheeled away to intensive care.

Sally Kemp never saw 14-year-old Mitchell alive again. Within four hours of arriving at Basildon Hospital, the merciless disease had claimed its latest young victim.

Mitchell, of Tyefields, Pitsea, had everything to live for. The popular, football-crazy youngster had decided to sign a two-year contract with Southend United after also being offered a chance with Premier League side Wimbledon. West Ham scouts had also shown an interest.

Mitchell had seemed fine when he came home from the Appleton School, Benfleet, last Tuesday. But after dinner and a hot bath he said he felt rough and, unusually for him, went to bed at 7.30pm.

He couldn't sleep and when his taxi proprietor dad, Roger, got up for work early next day, Mitchell started to be sick.

Mr Kemp, 44, got a card listing meningitis symptoms from the kitchen and started to check through them.

He said: "I had an uneasy feeling about meningitis although he kept saying he was all right. He said the back of his head hurt but he had no rash and no aversion to light. I should have just picked him up and got him to hospital. I knew meningitis was bad, but not that bad."

A couple of hours later, Mrs Kemp and her elder son, Daniel, 16, had to force open the bathroom door with a knife after Mitchell collapsed inside. By the time he arrived at Basildon Hospital he was covered from head to toe in the ominous mauve rash.

Mrs Kemp, 40, said: "Even then he was talking to me, saying he was hungry. I was cuddling him and asking him to be strong for us as they were doing tests on him."

Her last memory is of her son being taken off to intensive care where he had a fatal heart attack, triggered by the deadly disease.

His family console themselves in the knowledge that, even if he had survived, he might have lost his hands or feet. His mum said: "He couldn't live without his feet.

Football was his life."

The family has been overwhelmed with tributes from Mitchell's friends.

Mrs Kemp said: "We didn't realise what an effect he had on people. They say only the good die young, but it doesn't help. He was perfect and we are so proud of him."

Beneath the burly exterior, Mitchell was a soft-hearted animal lover. His mum has found a secret tribute he wrote to his beloved boxer dog, Abby, who died just before Christmas. She said: "He was a very loving son."

She also praised the doctors and nurses at Basildon Hospital who fought so hard to save her son's life. On the night Mitchell died, Daniel started complaining of a pain in his neck and feeling sick. She went back to he hospital with him. She said: "I was near on hysterical but they were brilliant with me. One nurse broke down with me."

The funeral will be at 10.30am this Thursday at Basildon and District Crematorium chapel, followed by burial in the cemetery.

Picture, top: Meningitis victim - Mitchell Kemp

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