It's a photograph to treasure; the twins, dressed in matching white sleep-suits, are getting up to mischief together. Their dark eyes shine bright as buttons; their skin has that peachy glow of health.

But one fateful night just over a year ago, the brothers went to bed – and only one woke up the next morning.

Alexander, beaming out from the right of the picture, above, was a healthy, robust 17-month-old when he went to sleep on the night of February 8, 2007.

But without rhyme or reason, he died in his sleep. There has never been any real explanation given to Nicola and Ian Richardson as to why one of their precious, beautiful twin sons became one of the 300 babies and children who die of cot death every year.

Or a reason why Harrison survived.

As the couple tucked their boys into bed, kissed their rosy cheeks and set the cot mobile to play its lullaby that fateful night, it was Harrison who Ian and Nicola had worried about.

Alexander's brow was cool. But Harrison had been running a temperature all day. When he stirred in the middle of the night, Ian went into the nursery, checked on both boys and took Harrison into their bed to allow Alexander a better night's sleep.

The next morning, it was Nicola who found her beautiful baby boy, lying ashen and lifeless.

As her other three sons milled around in the usual morning madness of dressing, breakfasting and getting off to school, she stood, frozen to the core.

Heart bursting from her chest, she bent to pick up her son.

"I knew before I held him. I managed somehow to get downstairs with him and phone for an ambulance. The children were all around me. I rang Ian and told him to turn the car around and come straight home. The emergency services told me to start giving him mouth. I did it and the boys were panicking. I tried to stay calm, to help Alexander, to help them.

"The elder boys started to look after Harrison. I couldn't go to pieces. I had to carry on trying to resuscitate him, even though in my heart I knew it was no good. Then the paramedics arrived and took over."

Minutes later, Ian arrived at their Cubley home. They followed the ambulance to Barnsley District General. Eventually, they were told that Alexander was dead.

Doctors checked Harrison for any sign of an infection of breathing problem, but found nothing wrong.

Nicola says: "Then I had to go home, leaving my baby. He was on his own, with strangers. I felt torn in two."

As 29-year-old Nicola, HSBC bank manager Ian, 31, and their older sons, Thomas, 11, and Jack, nine, grieved, the police had to investigate, as they do with all sudden deaths.

Nicola says: "The police were brilliant. At no point did we feel under suspicion. We were treated gently and taken step by step at our own pace."

A pathologist had to examine Alexander and an inquest was held.The verdict was cot death, but the family were left with so many questions which cannot be answered.

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