THE MOTHER of a Plymouth soldier killed by a roadside bomb faced her first Mother's Day without a card from her eldest son yesterday.

Every year Sam Bassett used to send his mother Coline a homemade card which she always kept.

Now the cards are treasured memories of her son, who was killed in Afghanistan last Remembrance Sunday.

Coline said: "Sam always made a card for Mother's Day. At playschool there was one with a handprint; even at senior school he made them.

"They are of great sentimental value to me now but I am glad I kept them. In one of them he wrote that he may not be here forever."

Sam was serving with The Rifles when he died aged 20 in an explosion in Afghanistan last November – he was just 31 days into his first tour.

His mother is now aiming to raise £10,000 for The Rifleman's Trust which offers practical help to the wounded and bereaved families.

Next month she will make her first ever parachute jump over Devon from 12,000 feet.

She is paying £250 of her own money to make the sponsored tandem jump in Sam's memory.

Coline said: "I kicked him up the backside when he came home from training with blisters on his feet and rub marks on his shoulders and he said he couldn't go back.

"But the boys who stuck it out became soldiers – men – they didn't come home to be hoodies."

The determination to do something to help other servicemen is shared by Colin's youngest son, Jack, who, along with some of Sam's best friends from Torpoint – Phil Ackland, Martin Rogers, Alex Rothwell and Jonathan Field – are planning a fundraising cycle ride from John O'Groats to Land's End.

Coline added: "When Sam passed out in April last year he was one of 18 lads. Two of them are now dead and five have lost arms and legs – four of them are double amputees and one is a triple amputee. It is just awful."

To donate to The Rifleman's Trust charity, go to www.justgiving.com and type in Samuel Bassett.

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