Goodbye Billy: Warrnambool teen lost suddenly to asthma
SITTING on the couch and watching sports will never be the same for Kev and Belinda Morrison after the sudden death of their son Billy.
This year it’s been hard for the Warrnambool couple to do anything that reminds them of their 15-year-old soccer fanatic, but it’s these same things that make them feel like he’s still close by.
Billy fought a chronic lung disease all his life and unexpectedly died earlier this year due to a severe asthma attack.
While paediatricians and professors at the Royal Children’s Hospital expected a double lung transplant would be inevitable one day, Mr Morrison said no one had predicted Billy’s rapid health decline was likely.
After the asthma attack at their Warrnambool home on December 30, Billy was stabilised and flown to the Royal Children’s Hospital for scans and treatment.
A stressful day of tests and monitoring revealed abnormal brain activity, which eventually led a team of specialists to declare there was no hope for his recovery.
On January 1 Billy was taken off life support and he died about 14 hours later, early on January 2.
Mr Morrison said it was the little things making life hard since then — even the smells from takeaway shops and certain items at the supermarket which reminded him of their beloved son.
He said the loss had changed the couple’s way of looking at life.
“We’ve been lost,” Mr Morrison said.
“But there’s no anger. I know he wouldn’t want me to be feeling the way I do sometimes. We will always be the parents of Bill.
“Sometimes you feel a bit stronger and I believe Billy is with me or around me and is giving me that strength.
“He was so much to looking forward to the NFL play-offs and Asian Cup soccer. He was crazy about a lot of sports.
“When I watch that I get quite emotional about it, thinking he was 15 and had so much to offer.”
Activity on Billy’s Twitter page showed he was happy and enjoying a normal life right up until his asthma attack on December 30, with his typical tweets about soccer, tennis and cricket.
Tributes online have come in from some of his 1812 Twitter followers and friends, including fellow sports fans in Spain, the United States and even well-known sports agent Ricky Nixon.
The unexpected funeral costs have complicated the Morrison family’s lives financially as they try to adjust to life without their son.
An online donation page is now helping raise money to support the funeral payment and establish a permanent memorial site for Billy, but has also become a place for people to pay tribute to the teenager.
“We’re not used to asking people for money or donations,” his dad said.
“Even with all his treatment, we’ve always managed and Billy always got what he needed.”
Mr Morrison said Billy attended Brauer College until a point last year when he struggled to keep up physically.
“We’re actually quite surprised how well-known he is in Warrnambool.
“He was such a caring, kind person that he’d give the shirt off his back to you. When people see us they expect to see Bill and ask where he is.
“People will remember Billy as always happy and incredibly well-mannered.
“Even when he was unwell he’d still say he was great. He was one in a million.”