Our hearts have truly been broken by the loss of our lovely Sam and we cannot believe that we will never see his happy smile or hear his laughter again. Sam’s life has clearly been cut far too short of which we feel seems incredibly unfair but the 17 years we had with him have left us with many happy memories of which we will cherish always The past 9 months have obviously been incredibly difficult for us all but we have had wonderful support from our family, friends and all the wonderful staff at Stanmore, UCH and Wrexham Park Hospital, in particular Helen, Lucy and Candida and for that we owe you all many thanks. We have also had some very special times with Sam during his illness including several VIP trips to his precious Arsenal and a wonderful day on a helicopter ride along the Thames all provided by various charities of which your donations today will go to support. Sam was also over the moon when he turned 17 and could start his driving lessons and he was ecstatic when he got his car, we felt we had our own personal chauffeur as he drove us everywhere. We also had many special moments with Sam over this time just as a family particularly when we were at home after all the time in hospital. Although Sam did not reach the official age of manhood he truly became a man during his illness, he never complained and handled himself with real dignity, he was polite and courteous to everyone he met, although of course was prone to a few jokes with the nurses. He had to endure such pain and discomfort that most of us will never know and we were truly amazed at how very brave he was. Those of you who knew Sam best will know that by far his best attributes were his generosity and of course his fabulous sense of humour. Sam always took great pleasure in treating people and many of us have some lovely things to cherish. And that sense of humour, we cannot begin to tell you all of the huge laughs he always gave us with his quick witted remarks and to mimicking people from TV, and when he and Hannah got their double act going we could be in fits of laughter that made our stomachs hurt, these memories in particular will give us great comfort. Another proof of Sam’s good humour was how we would call him Sammykins as a joke and somehow, not even sure why now, he got stuck with this and the whole family called him it, and even when his friends found out and would poke fun at him he would just take it all in his stride. Sam really was so very funny and probably this will be his biggest legacy. Sam was not academic at school but when he left he had no trouble finding a job in his chosen career as a trainee chef, in fact he was offered 3 jobs within a month of leaving school but he was particularly happy to be offered the job at the Renaissance Hotel of which he took and thoroughly enjoyed. We were very proud of him and we are happy that he at least had a small amount of time earning his own money, which he loved, and that he did at least have a small taster of his adult life. We are both so happy that we were able to provide Sam a happy and loving home environment and also that Hannah and he got on so well, very rarely falling out, something of which we were always very proud of. We have so many happy memories and for that we are thankful and we will cherish them forever. We are so unbelievably sad to be here today but thank you all for your support and please always remember our Sam with happiness and laughter, we wish him peace and with all the love in our hearts we say. GOODBYE SAMMYKINS