A MOTHER-of-six has described the moment she battled to revive her 11-year-old son after he collapsed while trying on his new school PE kit.

Kevin Burnett suffered from a severe form of asthma, known as brittle asthma, and collapsed and died last Wednesday.

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The Darwen Aldridge Community Academy pupil, who had only just started high school, regularly suffered from severe asthma attacks and had been resuscitated in the past, but he had also suffered seizures in recent years.

Mum Laura Partington, 33, of Maria Street, Darwen, said: “We had just got his PE kit that day. He was so excited.

“He wanted to try it on and he asked if he could watch a film after.

“He went upstairs to put his PE kit on but then started struggling to breathe. He went purple very quickly and his eyes rolled back.

“We tried CPR and the paramedics came but they couldn’t do anything. It just happened so quickly.”

She said Kevin had made an impact on the lives of everyone came into contact with.

She said: “He was a real cheeky chappy. There wasn’t a person he met who wasn’t touched by his personality.

“He was very confident and talkative. He never imposed his illness on anyone. He never wanted to be a burden to anyone.”

Kevin, whose middle name was Keegan, after the Manchester City manager at the time he was born, was one of six brothers.

His younger brothers, Lewis, five, Jake, six, and Ben, 10, are still at St Barnabas, the Darwen primary school he attended, while older brothers John, 13, and Lucas, 14, are students at DACA.

Laura said Kevin had a great sense of humour, and particularly liked to tell his favourite joke.

She said: “He would always tell people the same joke, the hospital staff, teachers, anyone he met.

“It was ‘what do you call a man floating in the sea with no arms and no legs? Bob’. He loved telling people that joke.”

Having been born with asthma, Kevin developed brittle asthma when he was six and then started suffering from seizures, the cause of which was undiagnosed, in 2013.

Of the brittle asthma Laura said: “It’s very uncontrollable. You can get severe asthma attacks. He would be using his inhaler every four hours with six to 10 puffs and was on constant antibiotics and steroids to try and control it.

“He would spend a lot of time in the children’s ward at Royal Blackburn Hospital. He knew all the staff on first name terms. The nurses and doctors were always fantastic. I can’t thank them enough.

“He would be in hospital about once a month, although he hadn’t been in for a while so we were starting to think things were improving.”

Before leaving St Barnabas, Kevin played the role of Demetrius in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream.

He was also a big music and sport fan, going to watch FC United with step-dad Steven Kenyon, 33.

The family have been inundated with flowers, cards and messages of support.

Laura said: “Nothing will ever take the pain away or relieve the pain, but the messages of comfort do help. It’s nice to know he was loved by so many and people thought so much of him.”

St Barnabas and DACA have both offered support and have laid on counselling for his brothers and anyone else affected by Kevin’s death.

Helen Thomas, headteacher at St Barnabas, said: “Kevin was a ray of light in school. His courage and his determination was an inspiration to all of us.

“He was always smiling when he came into school. He was witty, funny, always positive. He was just a little superstar.”

Brendan Loughran, principal at DACA, said: “We had all got to know him very well in a relatively short period of time.

“He had made a great impression in the summer school at the Academy and had made an excellent start to his secondary education.

“Kevin was outgoing and had an engaging personality and left a positive and lasting impression on everyone.”

Kevin’s funeral takes place tomorrow with the cortege leaving Maria Street at 1.30pm and going past DACA, with the service at 2pm at St Barnabas Church.

Friends of the family have started fundraising for the family. Donate at www.gofundme.com/ripkevin