THE family of a murdered teenager have donated £1,000 to the Essex Air Ambulance to thank paramedics who battled to save his life.

Tavis Spencer Aitken, from Ipswich, was just 17 when he was fatally stabbed 15 times in June 2018.

Now Tavis’s family have thanked the Earls Colne-based Essex Air Ambulance whose paramedics 'did everything they could' to keep their son alive.

The family also donated £1,000 to the East Anglian’s Children’s Hospices trust.

Tavis’s mum Sharon Box said they wanted to help the charities, whose fundraising has taken a dramatic hit during the coronavirus lockdown.

She said: “A team from the air ambulance was despatched to help Tavis. Sadly, despite their best efforts they were unable to save him, but it has always been a comfort to know that they did everything possible.

“EACH is a very special charity close to where we live which does some amazing work, and like the air ambulance its fundraising has been badly hit recently because of the lockdown.

“Our fundraising group Tavslife, which includes Sinade Brown, Stacey Read and Dana Gobbold, has raised this money over the last 18 months or so with a series of events including a disco, sports days in our local park and raffles with the help of our local community.

“With so much negativity in the world, we thought it would be a good time to be doing something positive.”

Air ambulance spokesman Natasha Robertson, said: “We are deeply touched that Tavis’s family have chosen to honour his memory with this donation and would like to thank them from the bottom of our hearts.”