WHEN Clive Loveday’s son went out celebrating on New Year’s Eve six years ago, it changed his family’s lives forever.

Matthew Loveday, 19, a former Commonweal School pupil, died from alcohol poisoning when a drinking game went wrong.

Now Mr Loveday, 54, is warning people to take it easy over the New Year celebrations.

He said: “Prepare before you go out. Have something to eat before you go, think about how you are going to get home, and stick together.

“Enjoy yourself but stay together. I don’t want anybody not enjoying themselves – I shall be drinking myself. You can stay responsible and still enjoy yourself.”

Since Matthew’s death, Mr Loveday, a postman from Old Town, has regularly been invited by schools and colleges to talk to students about what happened.

“I’m trying to fit this into my working life,” he said. “Matthew lost out on so much of his life so I’m trying to replace what he’s missing out on to help others at the same time.

“We don’t want to stop anyone enjoying themselves with alcohol, what we’re trying to do is stop any accidents and any similar cases of what happened to Matthew.

“When you drink, you become more confident so you do things you wouldn’t otherwise do. Some of those things can be life changing for yourself and for your friends and family.

“Our lives will always feel like there’s a piece of the jigsaw missing,” he said. “You try to live as normal a life as possible but it’s never 100 per cent complete because he’s not there anymore.

“We think about him all the time. It’s quite difficult but you have got to try to learn to live with it. You’re trying to live your own life and respect him as well.”

Matthew was celebrating with friends in Buckinghamshire and had been challenged to drink shots of the aniseed liquor ouzo as part of a drinking game.

Every time Matthew heard the word hungry in the song Hungry Eyes he had to down a shot.

By the time the song had stopped playing he had consumed 13 shots. He then continued drinking. Later he collapsed and died.

Mr Loveday said: “They did drink a lot. They bought that drink from the supermarket just like buying a loaf of bread. I used to say to him go steady with the drink but I think at that age they just think it’s only mum and dad again. He was just unlucky.”

Mr Loveday and his wife, Jenny, had a phone call in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 2005.

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack because of the shock of it,” he said. “It was horrible but you’ve got no choice. You’ve got to go ahead and deal with it.

“He was a great lad, he never had any enemies. He had a lovely smile. Everybody liked him.”

Clive, Jenny and their daughters, Katie and Lucy, visit Matthew’s grave in Christ Church regularly. To find out more about Mr Loveday’s campaign, visit www.drinksensiblethinkmatthew.co.uk