FIGHTING back tears Philip and Yvette Curtis today told of their devastation at losing their eldest child at a time when they said he had just got his life together.

FIGHTING back tears Philip and Yvette Curtis today told of their devastation at losing their eldest child at a time when they said he had just got his life together.

Wayne Curtis, the oldest of six children, was cycling to work along the A14 yesterday morning when he was in collision with several vehicles. He died at the scene.

The 25-year-old had bought his mountain bike only a week before, having previously been picked up by a colleague in a car, and was also looking forward to a promotion at Diapers, in Haughley, where he worked.

He had plans for the future and his parents described him as being more settled in life than they had known him to be for some time.

"The biggest tragedy is that he had honestly got his life more together in the last six months," Mr Curtis said at the family's home in Kipling Way, Stowmarket.

"He was making something of himself and moving forward. That's the tragedy.

"He appeared to us to be enjoying his work and he was only telling me on Saturday that he was going to be made up and go to dispatch. It would have been more money."

Wayne, who went to Stowmarket High School before training in catering at West Suffolk College, was hoping to be able to earn enough to move out of home.

He had lived on his own when he was at college but moved back home when he finished and his parents converted their dining room into his bedroom.

Mr Curtis said: "He was very keen to get a place of his own. He was looking for a flat.

"So when he heard he was being made up he realised it was the chance to find something more than a room.

"It's fairly cramped with all the adults in this house so he was keen to do that and move into his own space."

Mr and Mrs Curtis described their son as being full of life and boisterous. He loved listening to bands like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, was a staunch Norwich City supporter and had recently embarked on building a model of the Titanic.

"It's very difficult to put into words what we'll remember," Mr Curtis said.

"He was always full of life. He was boisterous and lively. And he was determined.

"When he was playing on the computer he'd be very loud and involved in it and he always had the Kerrang channel on the television.

"He was an ardent Norwich City supporter as myself and his brother James. We went to see them play on Friday night.

"And there were the small things like the Titanic. I only found out on Saturday that he was building a model of it.

"Life hadn't always run smoothly for him," he continued. "But he was very much at a stage where he was settling down and getting on top of everything and trying to make a good future for himself."

Wayne's parents and siblings – Sarah, 23, Nathan, 21, James, 17, Bradley, 14 and Stacey, 11 – are still at a loss as to what happened yesterday morning.

It was a stretch of road he had cycled before, when he worked at the nearby Little Chef on the A14.

"It seems to be a complete mystery," said Mr Curtis.

"We cannot understand how or why. It's the usual things people in our position ask.

"We don't think he would get off his bike and walk in the middle of the road. He wasn't that sort of person. And he had cycled that route a hell of a lot of times in the past.

"We cannot understand anything of the accident. It's a mystery."

A funeral date has yet to be arranged but Mr and Mrs Curtis said they were grateful for all the support they had received from their children's schools and colleagues at their places of work.