A "selfless, loveable and amazing" man who thought he was feeling unwell with a hangover died just seven days after contracting meningitis.
Luke Brown, had been home for a week after holidaying in Benidorm when he woke up feeling ill, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The young plasterer, from Upton in Wirral, brushed off his symptoms as a hangover after attending a charity event at the weekend.
He also suspected he was suffering from sinusitis, an infection his mum Viv often has.
However, later the same day, Luke was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital after he was found by his parents in bed having seizures.
Doctors discovered that he had contracted bacterial meningitis and he was put in an induced coma, but tragically died just a week later.
Two years on from Luke's death on October 1, 2019, his family are determined to keep raising awareness of the disease and the signs and symptoms that people need look out for.
Viv said: "It was two years on Friday and my heart knows it's happened but my head's telling me it hasn't, and I'm two years in.
"We certainly wouldn't want anyone to walk in our shoes because it's not a nice life; we are just existing, and we are still two years on trying to find our way in this new life forced on us without him.
"So raising awareness for us, if it helps just one person then job done."
Everyday, Luke's parents Viv and Del, 54, visit him in the cemetery where he is buried and sit and speak to him.
And at 4.54pm every Tuesday, to mark the time and day that he died, they play songs at the graveside from his favourite artists including Gerry Cinnamon and the Stone Roses.
Viv said she still sends texts to Luke's phone sometimes to let him know what his niece and nephews have been up to and the rest of his family.
She said: "I'll send him pictures of what the kids have done, when it's their birthdays, anything that's happened I'll message him and tell him, it just gets me through."
Paying tribute, Viv described Luke as a "selfless, amazing and loveable lad."
The 23-year-old's organs were donated to a man in his 30s, who needed a new liver, and a man and a woman who needed a kidney.
Viv said: "Luke still lived with me and his dad at home and he was just the life and soul of everything.
"He lit the room up when he walked in anywhere and he was a proper joker, a prankster, everybody loved him.
"He just loved his fashion, he loved his football, he loved Tranmere Rovers. He loved a flutter on the horses and he loved his holidays, but he absolutely adored his niece and his nephews.
"We're a very close knit family. Every loss is horrific but I think to lose a child, I can't even describe the pain.
"His friends are just unreal, absolutely unreal. They pick us up and they come and see us."
Following Luke's death in 2019, the family set up the Luke Brown Foundation in his memory, with the aim of raising awareness of meningitis and to offer support to affected families.
Ultimately, the family want to buy a lodge which families with loved ones affected by meningitis can use to get a well-earned break and have time to reflect on what has happened when the time is right for them.
Viv said: "The thing for the lodge is for anybody affected in the north west by meningitis, bacterial or viral - they can go to the lodge and reflect on what's happened to them as a family."
For more information on the Luke Brown Foundation click here.
