A GRIEVING mother has spoken of the devastating loss of her music-mad six-year-old son who died after a long fight with a brain disorder.Sarah Watson, from Colchester, said the death of her beautiful son Callum had left a large hole in many people's lives.

A GRIEVING mother has spoken of the devastating loss of her music-mad six-year-old son who died after a long fight with a brain disorder.

Sarah Watson, from Colchester, said the death of her beautiful son Callum had left a large hole in many people's lives.

She said he had been a magnet for people to come together and that his smile had lit up the faces of everyone he met.

Little Callum was born 12 weeks premature at Colchester General Hospital in February 1998, weighing just 2lbs and measuring only 11ins.

He was placed in an incubator and transferred almost immediately to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, where he stayed for about three months.

Doctors discovered he had cerebral palsy after a clot developed on his brain.

He was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he remained for another five months.

The pattern of his life did not change too much over the years with his mother and grandparents taking him back and forth to the London hospital for check-ups and operations.

But 28-year-old Miss Watson, a former Alderman Blaxill school pupil, said the little boy had inspired her.

Surrounded by shelves of condolence cards, she said: "When he was born, he was such a beautiful little baby - he was tiny and adorable. Then they told us that he had hydrocephalus. I just felt numb - it was scary, but you just go onto autopilot.

"Your natural instincts take over. We accepted he was ill, but he was such a little fighter, never complaining - he just got on with it."

He attended the Stepping Stones nursery project in Colchester and became well known for his cheeky grin, his mother said.

But in July last year, nine months after beginning at the "wonderful" South View special School, in Witham, he fell from his tricycle and hit his head.

Miss Watson said: "From that point onwards, he was never the same. He started to have fits and gradually he lost his eyesight and I think that was a bit frightening for him.

"He deteriorated rapidly and on February 22 he became really ill. He was taken to Colchester hospital, but his heart rate kept dropping.

"There was some talk about getting him to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, but they decided he was too ill to travel.

"At first, I thought he'd pull through like before, but then realised this time was different."

Callum died with many of his friends and family around him on February 29.

Miss Watson said: "We're just grateful that he died at the place where he was born. He was a smiler, who loved music and anything that had a beat."