More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Today should have marked a rite of passage for teenager Owen Kinghorn.
But rather than bunting and birthday cake to celebrate reaching 16, his family will instead make the sombre journey to his graveside.
KMTV's Keilan Webster spoke to Owen's family
It's been 10 weeks since the 15-year-old's body was found in a field in Ashford, but for his loved ones, the wounds of his sudden death are still raw and will never truly heal.
The popular pupil and promising footballer has been denied a bright future after taking an illicit substance for the first time. Not to mention his relatives, who have all been robbed of the presence of the "hero" in their lives. Now they face the prospect of a bleak Christmas, with an empty chair at the dinner table instead of their beloved boy.
Owen had told his parents he'd gone for a sleepover with mates on the evening of September 6, but panic erupted by the following afternoon when they still hadn't heard from him, only receiving a frantic text from one of his friends asking 'is Owen okay?'
Grandfather David Kinghorn pauses briefly as he recalls the day that turned his family's life upside down, after a police officer called by their home in Kingsnorth, to organise a search party at around 7pm.
"It was shortly after 9pm that there was another knock on the door," David said. "I went and opened it and there was the original officer and a constable with him.
"They didn't need to say anything at that stage, I just knew, because it was obvious. They came in and they said 'we're very sorry to inform you, we've found a body'."
It's the knock at the door every parent or grandparent dreads, and one that can't possibly be prepared for, even in a family as strong and tight-knit as the Kinghorns.
Still suffering from the shock, they were then driven to the William Harvey Hospital where mum Rachael and dad John were taken into a closed-off cubicle and shown their beloved son's body lying on a trolley, with his eyes still open.
David says the image of seeing his daughter-in-law climb onto the trolley, cuddle his cold body while shouting 'Osie' - the family's pet name for him when he was younger - is one "burnt into my mind that will haunt me for the remainder of my days".
Details of Owen's death are still unknown, and the subject of a coroner's investigation, but it is suggested his body may have been lying in the Great Chart field for up to 22 hours before being found.
"I don't think anyone could imagine how people feel in those circumstances," David said.
"If I said I felt as if I'd been run over by a steamroller and flattened, scraped off the road, put through a mixing machine, taken out and then put into a blending machine, I don't think you're even getting anywhere near how any of us felt.
"We were all totally ripped apart."
Rachael still, understandably, breaks down in tears as she tries to come to terms with her loss.
"We're all shadows of the people we were," she said.
"We're living, we're alive, but we're shadows. People say it gets easier over time but I don't see how it can. We're going to be living the rest of our lives without my baby."
To ensure his death isn't in vain, however, the family are supporting a campaign run by rehabilitation charity Kenward Trust, where a plaque in his memory has been unveiled this week.
The Think Differently scheme, supported by the KM Group, involves going into schools to engage with young people and raise awareness of the issues and potential consequences of substance misuse through a series of sessions.
David said: "When you hear about drugs you tend to think there's a ladder that people climb, they start off with cannabis, move onto something else and eventually perhaps end up as heroin addicts or something.
"Owen's death has brought home that it can kill you on the first try. I don't think people know that."
Perhaps the biggest deterrent however, David hopes, may have come at Owen's funeral when his 17-year-old brother, who recently joined the Army, went up to the lectern to read a 10-line poem in his memory.
Joe got through the first four lines, then had to stop to compose himself, before battling through to finish, to an ovation from the hundreds in attendance.
"Most of the people there were Owen's classmates and therefore of a similar age," David said.
"If the sight of a soldier in uniform trying to say a poem for his dead brother, but breaking down sobbing, didn't make them think 'this is the sort of devastation something like this has caused', we might as well all give up now."
Kenward Trust runs its sessions in 75 schools but the KM wants to help it extend them to all 203 schools and colleges across the county.
Owen's family have already raised more than £3,000 as part of the campaign, but the KM Group wants to try and encourage donations to help the charity raise £50,000 and successfully reach thousands of youngsters.
To donate, visit the page at tinyurl.com/uqgqqag.
You can hear more of Rachael's interview in today's news podcast.
