A MOTHER facing her first Christmas since the death of her disabled son following a street attack is to spend the day feeding the homeless in his memory.

Carol Hall endured the horror of finding her 28-year-old son Scott, who had physical and learning disabilities, unconscious on the floor of their home in Framwellgate Moor, Durham City, on the evening of Saturday, August 2.

He never regained consciousness and died in hospital two days later.

Police are investigating whether Mr Hall’s death was connected to an assault 11 days earlier, which left him needing hospital treatment.

Mrs Hall, 56, said: “It’s been a terrible time. I’ve had to have counselling.

“We talk about him all the time. Sometimes it doesn’t feel real.”

Mr Hall, a former Framwellgate School Durham pupil, was known in the area for helping those in need, including the homeless, and now his mother is to spend Christmas Day helping at a Salvation Army soup kitchen in Crook.

She has also helped at a Newcastle kitchen and plans to donate her son’s clothes to homeless people.

“It’s what he would have wanted. He had a heart of gold,” Mrs Hall said.

The part-time shop assistant keeps her son’s ashes in the front room, puts them to bed each night and took them with her on holiday to Scotland.

She has even dressed his urn for Christmas with a Santa Claus hat and snowy white beard.

“We never leave him out,” she said.

Mr Hall was a fit and healthy child until he was hit on the head by a ball while watching a football match aged ten.

From then onwards, he suffered strokes, speech problems, epileptic fits and mobility issues.

His family had to fight for years before he was diagnosed with Rasmussen’s encephalitis, a rare inflammation of the brain.

Despite his health problems, Mr Hall enjoyed fishing, playing pool and darts and watching films.

Last Christmas, he was over the moon to get the theme tune to the Hollywood blockbuster Rocky, his favourite film that he watched almost every day, on his mobile phone.

He also raised money for a range of good causes, including disability charities. Donations from his funeral raised £270 for the Brain Research Trust.

His sister Zoe Hall, a 24-year-old disability support worker, said: “He would give you the shirt off his back. He would do anything for anybody.”

Recently, the family were honoured at a ceremony after agreeing Mr Hall’s organs should be donated.

Mrs Hall said her son had always wanted his organs to be donated in the event of his death and, though it was a difficult decision to make, they stuck to his wishes. She recently received a thank you letter from the recipient of one of his kidneys.

"He got his last wish. The ceremony was a nice tribute," Mrs Hall said.

Two teenage boys, both aged 15 at the time, who were arrested on suspicion of assaulting Mr Hall are due to answer bail in the New Year.