A toddler choked to death while fruit picking with his family.

A stroll in the country cost a 15-month-old boy his life last November.

Thomas Ford was in Norfolk, in the UK, on a walk with his dad Robert and his sister Olivia. Robert was picking blackberries and handing them to Thomas to eat. The little boy had eaten the fruit before, without any problems. But one blackberry caused Thomas to start coughing.

Thomas’ mum Serena says Robert quickly realised the sound of Thomas’ coughing wasn’t normal.

“He turned around and we saw he was going blue,” she told BBC Radio Norfolk at the time. “We tried to do what you’re taught to do, pat them on the back and everything.”

It didn't help, so Robert called Serena, who is a nurse.

"When I got there, his heart wasn’t beating, so I just went into nurse mode, basically, and started CPR," she remembers. "I never thought I’d be doing it on my son."

An air ambulance took Thomas to hospital, but he died three days later.

Ford told the Eastern Daily Press that Thomas was always on the go and he would always make people laugh.

“He had a mischievous look on his face - as though he was doing one thing but planning something different. He was always dancing on our table and we had to put the music up to full volume," she said.

Here's a video of Thomas's mum talking about the tragedy. Post continues after the video...

She says the family's hearts have been "torn apart" by Thomas's death.

“The last few weeks have been a living nightmare," she says. "We keep thinking we’re going to wake up. It feels like you’re in your own little bubble - everyone else carries on with their lives while we’re stuck in this horrible rut.”

The couple tried not to hide anything from their two daughters, Olivia, five, and Emily, three. “They came to the funeral because we wanted them to see everything that happened," Ford said.

Robert and Serena tried to come up with an explanation their daughters would understand. “We told them Thomas had gone to the moon and that he wasn’t coming back," they shared.

Olivia and Emily then drew pictures of themselves in a rocket, travelling to the moon to visit their brother.

Ford doesn't want any other parents to have to go through the tragedy her family has gone through. She wants people to be aware of the risks of children choking on food.

"I didn't think you could choke on a blackberry, as soft as it is," she says. "But there is a potential risk in everything. I’m not saying parents should become paranoid, but it’s something to bear in mind. Perhaps just consider cutting food into smaller pieces for your child and be mindful that the potential for choking is there.”

An inquest into Thomas' death has found a conclusion of ‘accident’ for his cause of death, with the coroner, David Osborne saying, “I am satisfied that Thomas’s parents did absolutely everything that they could have done in response to the accident which occurred when Thomas started to choke.

"My conclusion is one of accident”.

Has your child ever started choking on something you thought was safe?