THE mum of tragic toddler Finlay Jay Johnston, who died after contracting meningitis, has been left devastated after losing a pendant containing his handprint.

Finlay died aged 19-months-old, just two days after taking ill at his Smalley Wall home, in the Infirmary area of Blackburn.

Heartbroken mum Catherine Queen, 25, later paid £80 for a necklace and two pendants, one with his handprint and one with his footprint which she treasured.

But after taking the handprint one off the necklace, something she never usually did, her six-year-old son Kenzie took it outside to play with.

“He put it in his pocket but it has fallen out,” she said. “I was angry at first.

“My kids know what it is and not to touch it. I was devastated.”

It is thought to have been lost near Honey Hole, off Rockcliffe Street, near Asda.

It is silver and shaped like a tear drop.

It has Finlay’s handprint on one side and his name on the other.

Catherine, a former Darwen Vale High School pupil, posted an appeal on Facebook in an attempt to find the lost pendant but despite it being shared to other websites the necklace has not turned up since going missing on Wednesday, July 10.

She said: “I got it from the funeral home and they only keep the casts for six months so I can’t get another.

“A man sent me a message and he is making a replica one for free but it won’t be the same.

“If an adult had picked it up I would have got it back because it has Finlay’s name on it and everybody around here knows me.

“It might have been picked up by a kid or somebody who isn’t from around here.”

Catherine’s eldest son, Cameron, seven, has been particularly upset since the pendant went missing, the mum-of-four said.

‘Cheeky little’ Finlay died in January 2011.

He was first thought to be suffering from flu but he died after being admitted to Royal Blackburn Hospital and referred to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

After his death, his organs helped save the lives of two babies and a 20-year-old woman.