"This is how I'm keeping my son Harvey Willgoose alive"
Six months on from the tragic death of 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose, this is how his mum is ‘keeping him alive’.
With camera phones in the pockets of most people in society, more photographs and videos are being taken than ever before.
Many of us use them as a memento of a long-awaited gig, show, football match or holiday, and to capture other special moments we know we will want to remember.
But as those of us who have lost someone know, photographs and videos can take on a different meaning when they are amongst all you have left of that special person.
And for Harvey’s mum, Caroline, watching and sharing her collection of pictures and videos of her beloved son is helping to keep him ‘real’.
The 15-year-old died just over six months ago, on February 3, 2025, when he was stabbed by a teenage boy in the courtyard of All Saints School, where both boys were pupils.
Caroline has a following of over 63,000 people on TikTok, and she uses that platform to share videos which provide a glimpse into who Harvey was, and to look back on happy family occasions.
“I think because I've got that much video of him and things it's it makes him real. You know because it is real,” Caroline told The Star.
She added: “I'm just posting things all the time, just, just keeping him alive.”
Others sharing their memories of ‘funny kid’ Harvey are also helping Caroline and her family to keep his memory alive.
She said: “Harvey was a funny kid.
“The amount of people that have reached out and messaged me and told stories about him. “And I've been to Tramlines and people coming up, kids coming up.
“Somebody messaged me the other day from Nottingham saying that Harvey is his friend who he met on an away game.
“He’s got anxiety and won't leave his bedroom and Harvey helped him out.”
Caroline says that it feels as though tragedies like the one that has sadly befallen her family ‘always happens to someone else’.
But the support and empathy she has received from both loved ones and strangers is what is ‘carrying her through’.
“I get people coming up to me on a daily basis if I go to town or Crystal Peaks coming up crying, mothers’ crying.
“And I get it because I look at things and I think I can't get that out of my head.
“They’re just wanting to reach out.
“And they're what's carrying me through.”
Harvey’s killer, who cannot be named, was convicted of murder today at the conclusion of a five-week Sheffield Crown Court trial.
The boy pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a bladed article prior to the trial beginning.
He is due to be sentenced at a later hearing.