A GRIEVING family today bid farewell to baby Kayden Edwards, who died at just five-and-a-half months old of a rare form of epilepsy.

Little Kayden suffered from Ohtahara Syndrome – the same condition which affected David and Samantha Cameron’s son Ivan – which caused him to have up to 200 fits a day during his short life.

Mum Bonnie Dale and dad Simon Edwards were both desperate to get their tiny son home from hospital to be with his brother and two sisters.

But just as they thought he was well enough to come back to their house in Robin Drive, Ipswich, he took a tragic turn for the worse.

When he failed to breathe on his own after being taken off a ventilator, the couple were forced to make the devastating decision not to resuscitate their precious boy and he died peacefully in their arms.

Today, they paid tribute to their brave fighter, whom they say has been an inspiration to all those who met him and has given them the courage to get through this terrible ordeal.

“So many people just take things for granted,” said dad Simon, 31. “But Bonnie never had the opportunity to feed Kayden or hear him cry. People complain when they hear a baby cry, but we would have done anything to hear him cry.

“Every day was a fight for him, but he rose to that challenge and he fought every single day. Although Kayden didn’t do the things that other babies did, we probably loved him more for that.”

He added: “We were so close to our dream of bringing him home, but sadly he never made it home from hospital.

“When they took the tube out, they couldn’t maintain his airway. They tried, but after all the fight he had had, it had just worn him down.

“So we had to make the hardest decision that any parent would ever have to make in their lives.

“It was so hard for us, but you reach a point where you can’t be selfish. We never wanted to lose our little boy, but we had to think about what was fair for Kayden.

“We just told them to stop and he was put into our arms. We didn’t know how long it would be, but he was so strong. He held on for two hours until he just peacefully passed away.”

- See today’s Evening Star for moving tributes and pictures of little fighter Kayden.