A FAMILY who raised a magpie chick in their home now believe the same bird is regularly visiting the grave of a son who died at the age of four after an asthma attack.

The chick was rescued by Barry Hobson, the uncle of tragic Dylan Lomax, and was reared by the whole family.

Nobody loved the bird more than young Dylan, who named him Big Sam after his football hero Sam Allardyce.

His mother, Valerie, aged 31, of Spa Road, Bolton, said: "Dylan's uncle found the chick in his back garden last April and we started feeding it worms and looking after it.

"At the start it had no feathers at all. It was in the house for weeks."

Big Sam eventually grew feathers and flew away just days before Dylan's death, last June. Dylan suffered an acute asthma attack and was rushed to the Royal Bolton Hospital, where he died.

Just days after the tragedy, the Lomax family are convinced they saw his pet magpie at Heaton Cemetery.

The first sighting was the week Dylan was buried and the bird is now there every time the family return to his grave.

"At first I was not sure that it was the same bird because it was a bit strange and I thought it could be bad luck," said Miss Lomax.

"But when it kept coming back we saw it had the same red mark on his beak."

She said Dylan's brothers and sister - Marcus, aged nine, Byron, 10 and Jodie, 13 - who are still struggling to come to terms with their loss, do not see Big Sam as bad luck but more of a good luck mascot for Dylan.

"It makes me feel quite happy to see it again and people are always telling me they have seen it," said Miss Lomax.

"The stonemason tells us it is always sitting on Dylan's grave. It's unreal, but all the kids love it and think it is brilliant."

As reported in The Bolton News on Tuesday, January 2, the magpie is the main topic of conversation among the regular visitors to the cemetery, some of whom have given him different names.