The parents of a woman and her four-year-old son killed in a road accident in Lanzarote today told of their nightmare journey to the island hours after hearing about the tragedy.

Heartbroken Stan and Patsy Thackway had to sit among happy and excited tourists for the four-hour trip to be with their dead loved ones.

Their daughter Nicky Claridge, 27, of The Green, Harton, between York and Malton, died at the scene of the accident in the island's capital, Arrecife.

Her son Jordon's life support machine was switched off at Las Palmas children's hospital four days after the accident.

Her husband, Kevin, 30, and their two-year-old son, Louis, escaped with minor injuries.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the accident, Patsy, 52, and Stan, 50, of Millfield Avenue, York, told the Evening Press how they feel "empty and numb".

"It was one of the most upsetting moments of my life. My daughter had just been killed, and we were sitting among all the holiday makers," said Stan.

Nicky's family was halfway through a fortnight's holiday in Puerto del Carmen when their hire car was in collision with a motorcycle near Arrecife.

The motorcyclist, a 27-year-old local man, Jose Antonio Baez Duque, also died.

Nicky, who attended Archbishop Holgate School in Hull Road, before becoming a hairdresser, leaves two sisters Sarah, 30, and Sally, 28, and a brother Jamie, 26.

Said Patsy: "Words can't describe how I feel, or how special Nicky was to us all. We're a close family and I'm so glad because it's helping us get through it.

"We all miss Nicky, but most of all we'll miss our Saturday mornings together. Every week we all got together - it's just coming up to summer when we would all sit in the garden, eat toasted teacakes and watch the children in the paddling pool.

"When she was younger Nicky loved horses, but after she had the children they became her life - they were everything to her."

She described Nicky as "bubbly, kind, and witty, always making people laugh".

Jordon attended St Aelred's RC Primary School in Fifth Avenue, along with his cousins, Adam, 10, David, six, Victoria, four, Rosie, six, Jack, five, and Hollie, 18 months.

Patsy added: "He was a lovely little boy, he was just coming out of his shell. He was never away from Nicky's side - they went everywhere together. There were a few times when he would stay over at his cousins', but halfway through the night we would have to take him home because he missed his mum."

Said Stan: "Everyone in Lanzarote was absolutely brilliant; the holiday rep and the British Embassy - they couldn't have done more. "I feel so empty and I can't concentrate on anything - Nicky wasn't just a daughter, she was a friend."

The inquest on Nicky and Jordon was opened and adjourned yesterday in York by coroner Donald Coverdale.

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