‘He died in our arms’: Reef Carneson’s devastated mom on the death of her brave little fighter

Lydia Carneson bathed her little boy, dressed him in his pyjamas and he lay in his parents’ arms until his last breath.

“Our family is absolutely devastated,” Lydia says. Reef (12), whose life-long battle with cancer was followed by people around the world, lost his fight at 8pm on Friday 4 June.

Lydia and her husband, Ryan, were told by doctors in April that their son might have only weeks left but there was one last hope: an experimental drug that had never been used on children before.