Mother releases last picture of son lost to knife crime

· Grace Idowu tells of her grief for teenager David
· She hopes photo will bring home reality of violence

David Idowu lies in a hospital bed. His eyes are closed, his face swollen, a tube protrudes from his mouth, feeding drips keep him hydrated and a heart monitor measures the fading signs of life.

Five days after this photograph was taken by his family in the Royal London hospital, east London, David, 14, died from a knife wound to the heart, inflicted as he went to play football in the park.

His mother, Grace Idowu, 48, released the last picture of David to the Guardian for publication today in an attempt to illustrate the stark reality of teenage knife crime.

"That is my beautiful boy," she said. "I want this picture published so people can see what happened to him. I want young people to see what happens when you put a knife in someone.

"They should just stop all this. He was not a criminal, he was an innocent boy. All this is for nothing."

Idowu remembers watching a news report in the summer on the killing of 15-year-old Arsema Dawit on an estate in Waterloo, central London.

"I just saw it and thought it was very sad that this young girl should die like this," she said. "I never imagined as I watched that my son would be next."

But two weeks later Idowu was at work in Tesco when two police officers entered the store and walked towards her till. It was 5.45pm, about 45 minutes after David had shut the front door of his house, crossed the road and walked into Tabard Gardens, the park opposite, to play football.

"When I saw the police officers coming into the shop I thought it must be for shoplifting. But they were walking to me and they asked me to come into the office," she said.

The officers told her that David had been attacked around the corner from his home. "It was like the life was suddenly sucked out of me. I collapsed and I came round to hear them shouting my name," she said.

"They drove me to the Royal London hospital where they were operating on David. They had resuscitated him twice before they started the surgery. The knife had been thrust deep into his chest and pierced his heart.

"David lost 90% of his blood, they fought so hard to save him."

After a five-hour operation Idowu, her husband Tim and their other children were allowed to see David in the intensive care unit where he lay wired to machines and unconscious.

For 20 days Idowu sat at her son's bedside holding his hand and stroking his forehead.

"When I called his name he would turn his head to me," she said. "His eyes were wide open but he could not see me, he just turned his head towards the sound. The doctors told me he may not survive but I was determined he would, then they told me he would be brain damaged but I wanted him back no matter what state he was in."

Fifteen days into her vigil Idowu had this picture taken, the last of her young son. Five days later he died without ever coming round.