A MUM is campaigning to raise awareness of a sleep disorder after her son was seriously injured and his fiancée was killed in a crash where the driver at fault had the condition.

Carole Upcraft has launched an e-petition calling for the government to pressure lorry drivers to have tests for sleep apnoea, which causes daytime sleepiness and fatigue.

Her son Daniel, 32, suffered brain damage and his fiancée Nicola Culshaw, 33, was killed when their car was hit by a lorry while queuing for the Dartford tunnel on the M25 in April last year.

The lorry driver, 40-year-old David Thomas from Upminster, was initially charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but the case was dropped when it was discovered he had undiagnosed sleep apnoea.

Library supervisor Mrs Upcraft, of Knoll Rise, Orpington, said: “There is no point in being vengeful here. We just need to find a positive out of what happened.

"We do not want another family to go through what we have gone through.

“Research shows that 41 per cent of HGV drivers have a sleep disorder of one kind or another, but most of them won’t be aware of it.”

Mr Upcraft and Miss Culshaw, who taught chemistry at Sydenham High School, lived together in Cowper Road, Bromley, and were due to get married three months after the crash.

Communications engineer Mr Upcraft was in hospital for 10 months after the crash, and has short term memory problems as a result of the brain damage he suffered.

Mum-of-three Mrs Upcraft, 55, said: “He was in post traumatic amnesia for 10 weeks after the crash. We had to keep telling him that Nicola had died because he would not take it in. It was heartbreaking.

“The loss of Nicola has left a massive gap in his life and ours too. We want to raise awareness of sleep apnoea so Nicola has not gone for nothing.”

To sign the petition, which needs 100,000 signatures to be considered by the government, go to epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/5851