Katherine Errington says she knew "deep down" her seven-year-old son would not make it out himself after their family home exploded as they slept.

The blast in Newcastle last October was caused by the extremely dangerous production of 'shatter cannabis' in a flat below and claimed the life of Archie York, as well as one of two men responsible for the drugs lab.

The other, Reece Galbraith, 33, of Rectory Road, Gateshead, survived and was jailed for 14 years for two counts of manslaughter as well as possessing and supplying cannabis at Newcastle Crown Court on Wednesday (14 May).

Several homes were destroyed, people were evacuated and Archie's surviving mother, her partner and the schoolboy's baby brother were taken to hospital.

Seven months on and Katherine - still "living a nightmare" - has been recalling the horror of the explosion in Violet Close, in Benwell, in an effort to highlight the devastating effects 'shatter' can have on ordinary people.

"I just heard this loud screaming in my ear, and it felt as if my whole body had elevated up and crashed back down," she told ITV Tyne Tees, reliving the moment she was awoken in the early hours of 16 October, 2024.

"I heard Finley crying. He was seven weeks [old] at the time. I was trying to shout at him, and say 'it's going to be okay - mummy's here'.

"I couldn't see him. I had bricks, debris, I had loft insulation all over us. I could hear all the commotion, emergency services, sirens, I could hear them, I could hear everyone shouting.

"And then I just closed my eyes and hoped that, because I thought if I was going to die, at least I'd be asleep."

Katherine said it had otherwise been a normal night.

Through tears, she described how she had kissed Archie goodnight at bedtime and told him she would see him in the morning.

Just a matter of hours later, and after being pulled out of the ruins, she saw a neighbour holding her baby Finley, but there was no sign of Archie.

"I just kept looking at the building and thinking 'where's Archie?'," she continued.

"I hoped and hoped he would have been found, but I knew deep down that he wasn't going to be able to get out himself, because I couldn't.

"And then one of the sergeants came round and they says, 'look, we've found Archie, but he's gone, he's not here'."

More than half a year on, Katherine remembers Archie as a little boy with an unforgettable personality and with his whole life ahead.

'"Even though he was just a seven-year-old boy, he had a personality that no one will ever forget," she said.

"He was cheeky, mischievous, just a normal seven-year-old boy with his full life ahead of him."

Meanwhile, her feelings for the friends who were producing shatter below are clear.

Jason Laws died in the blast and pal Reece Galbraith made it out alive and is now in prison for causing her son's death.

"I've got no sympathy for him [Jason Laws] or his family," said Katherine. "In my eyes him and Reece are the ones who put Archie in a situation where he should never have been in."

Katherine is speaking out to raise awareness of 'shatter' and the danger it poses.

"It wasn't a cannabis farm and that's the difference between cannabis and shatter," she said.

"It's gas, and it scares me to think that 98 gas canisters were living in a flat below me and I was unaware of that going on."

She added: "It just infuriates us that it was shatter that's caused this. It didn't need to happen."