THE father of a five-year-old boy who died of meningitis wants to warn other parents after his tragedy.

Ethan Scholes died on January 2, at Great Western Hospital (GWH) just hours after symptoms started to show.

Ethan’s dad, Stuart Walters, said there were no warning signs that his son was so ill when he first started complaining of a headache on New Year’s Day.

His dad thought he might have been suffering from German measles because he had been fine all day, before going upstairs to try and sleep it off.

A rash did not appear until late in the evening on the back of his neck between his shoulder blades and by that time it was too late.

Stuart, 54, from Penhill, said: “I realised something was wrong when I went upstairs and tried to pick him up.

“I tried to call an ambulance but because I was panicking I couldn’t dial so I went to my neighbour.

“The ambulance arrived quickly and when we got to the hospital they tried to revive him using CPR but he was flat lining and they asked if I wanted them to continue but I could see he had already gone.

“From the rash appearing to him dying, it all happened within an hour – it was so quick.”

Stuart paid tribute to his son, who was a popular pupil at the Swindon Academy.

He said: “He was a proper five-year-old boy, who didn’t like girls and was running around every chance he got.

“We used to do everything together and used to just generally mess around and have a laugh.

“It just seems so unfair, it is a really big loss and leaves a hole in my life.”

The heartbroken father now hopes that something good can come out of the tragedy by getting the symptoms of the killer disease back in the forefront of parents’ minds.

“I want to raise awareness again of meningitis because there was a big campaign two years ago but it all seems to have died down again.

“I know all the symptoms to look out for but by the time the signs started showing it was too late.

“It’s such a nasty disease and there is so much out there that people don’t know about.

“I want to raise money for the Meningitis Trust because they rely completely on donations and they are not well known. If we can do something by raising the awareness for other parents and raising money then it wouldn’t be a total loss and something good would have come from it.”

Ethan’s class mates have also said that they want to do something in his memory.

The funeral for Ethan will be on Monday, January 24, at 12.45pm at Kingsdown Crematorium.

Instead of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made in Ethan’s memory to the Meningitis Trust via the Co-Operative Funeral Service.