A GRIEVING mother has told of the agonising final hours she spent with her teenage son as he lay fatally wounded on a life-support machine.

Devastated Zoey McGill sat with 18-year-old Jack Woodley, who was allegedly stabbed during an altercation, before medics tried a second operation to save the young man’s life.

Jack, who grew up in Newton Aycliffe, was seriously injured as he left the fun fair at Houghton Feast.

The Northern Echo:

Jack Woodley, left, and right, Zoey and Chris McGill at their home in Newton Aycliffe

On Sunday night, despite the desperate efforts of medics, Jack, who went to Woodham Academy in Newton Aycliffe, died from his injuries.

Zoey, 34, who works as a supervisor at GSK, the pharmaceutical company in Barnard Castle, and is married to Chris said: “It is awful.

“I am no longer living. I left myself at that bedside, and I’ll have this for the rest of my life. I will never be able to find comfort in the pain that he went through.”

 Jack, who has two brothers, Jayden 13, and six-year-old Jenson, had left the family home to live in the Felling area of Gateshead but told his mother he had to leave after he was burgled and attacked in his own home around a week before he died.

Zoey said Jack, who had been offered a job at Amazon in Gateshead, wanted to live in a house with his girlfriend but was told by social services he would have to wait until one was available.

Until then he would have to stay in the YMCA hostel in Sunderland.

On October 15, the night before he was injured, he spent the night with his family at their holiday home in Whitley Bay.

He told his mother he would have his first night in the hostel after spending the evening with his girlfriend at Houghton Feast and she dropped him off at the bus stop.

Zoey said: “They went to the fun fair and I have videos of him there. They are heart-breaking. I have rang him at half eight and he was happy. He said it was ‘class’

He said: ‘Mam, can you send us some more money?’

“He asked for £5 for the last ride. We have got a video of him on the ride just having fun.”

The Northern Echo:

Zoey and Chris McGill Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT

On Saturday night Zoey received the heart-stopping news that Jack has been seriously hurt and was in hospital.

She said: “His girlfriend called and said ‘you need to go to the RVI, me and Jack have been took to hospital.

“As soon as she said that we shot up and got there.

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“The took me straight to intensive care and I didn’t even recognise him. It did not look like Jack.

“He was heavily sedated and they were pumping nine litres of blood through him at a time, in and out of him. We had a little bit of hope.  The surgeon said ‘we are giving him the best of everything’

“He had an operation and they had another chance to save him.

“They said: ‘We have to tell you, Jack is seriously ill. We are not going to lie. “We want you to say your ‘goodbyes’ to him. We must tell you how it is. He probably is going to die on the table’.

“He got wheeled away and we had to wait.

“They tried so hard. “I cannot thank them enough for what they did for him. They were amazing but he passed on the table.

“The surgeons all came in. The main surgeon broke down. He said: ‘We are so sorry that we could not save your son.’”

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