A knock on the door no mother wants to get

Carol Anne Milton wrote a book to help her cope after her youngest son Alan took his life. Here in an extract from the Coldest Night, she recalls how a day that began like any other, turned into her biggest nightmare.

FRIDAY, 1 March 2002 began as any ordinary day would in our house. By 9am my husband, Noel, and our sons, Stephen, 25, and Niall, 24, had left for work.

Our daughter, Noelle, 15, had gone to school where should would complete her Junior Certificate mock exams that day. Our youngest son, Alan, 22, was, I presumed, still asleep. My eldest son, David, 28, lived and worked in Copenhagen at the time and has since married and settled in Denmark.