Crash victim (9) yet to hear mother dead

The funeral of a woman killed in a road crash has been captured on film to show her young son when he wakes from a coma.

Nine-year-old Cambridge boy Jacob Henderson was critically injured in the accident that killed his mother Anna Pidduck, 45.

He is in an induced coma at Starship hospital.

The pair were on their way to a school holiday programme in Cambridge when their car collided with a bitumen tanker. It would have been her 46th birthday today.

Hundreds of mourners farewelled the single mum in an emotional service which was filmed so her only son could watch it when he was ready.

"Jacob doesn't know. It is sad but there is nothing we can do about that,'' Anna's brother Mark Pidduck said.

"We are going to video the funeral and try to see how he goes. We will get him counselling.''

Jacob's father, Ian Henderson, had not left his son's side since the accident but attended his former partner's funeral yesterday.

Jacob suffered a head injury, cracked ribs and a cut to his arm in the crash and had been put in an induced coma until his brain stopped swelling.

"The doctors have told us not to even ask what will happen for at least another three days,'' Mark Pidduck said.

"We just have to wait. They have to wait for things to settle down, for the swelling to go down.''

Jacob's friends had visited the family home to pay their respects but Mark said the biggest hurdle would be next week when his friends returned to class without him.

"That will be hard and there will be a lot of questions,'' Pidduck said.

Anna's older brother Mike said Anna was killed at an intersection she crossed every day on her way to work in customer service at the florist Lilies by Blewden.

He said Anna had stopped to let a truck and trailer past and pulled out without seeing there was a truck trailing behind.

Anna Pidduck's parents Terry and Bev Pidduck were devastated at the loss of their youngest child and only daughter, who had lived in Cambridge all her life.

- Kirsty Wynn and John Weekes of the Herald on Sunday

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