"BYE mum, love you."

It was the farewell Leslye Polito had heard so many times before when her youngest son Daniele dashed out - off to see friends, to play one of the many sports he loved or to bag a bargain at the Tesco around the corner.

It was also the last thing he said to her before he died.

He was staying with a friend in Littlehampton on Friday night before working 8am to 4pm at Shoreham Academy the next day. Normally he wasn't asked to work on the school's building site at the weekend but they were on a tight schedule to finish before term began.

On Saturday, August 22, Leslye and her husband Nino were on their way to a friend's garden party when they heard a Hawker Hunter jet had crashed into the A27. Guests were discussing the accident and all hoped the pilot was ok. They thought nothing more of it - no-one knew anyone had died.

The seed of worry was sown in Leslye's mind when she arrived back at her Goring home alone at about 9pm.

A colleague of Daniele's was on the doorstep extremely concerned. Their boss let them leave work early to make the most of the good weather. Daniele, 23, got a lift with fellow work mate Matt Jones towards Brighton, he said. The boss was a few cars behind when he saw the crash ahead. The group had looked for Daniele all afternoon, even in hospitals. They could not be sure but feared he was injured.

Leslye rang Daniele's mobile number countless times and also left her details with the police before getting messages to Nino and her daughter Marina asking them to come home.

At 11pm family liaison officers visited and confirmed Matt Jones' driving licence had been found at the crash scene. Leslye, 63, says she will never forget that moment. She collapsed, spent the entire night in the bathroom retching and then struggled to eat for days after.

While they were certain they had lost Daniele, because they knew he was in the same car, he was not formally identified until Wednesday. His death was confirmed by his unique tattoos. Marina refused to accept the news until she was shown photographs of the unforgettable designs.

'Amo tutta la famiglia' was inscribed on his right bicep. It translates as 'I love all the family' and was a testimony to his Italian heritage and his devotion to loved ones. A breast cancer ribbon etched on his leg was also a surprise for his mother when she survived the disease.

His third tattoo is dedicated to his son Georgio.

Not only was Daniele the baby of the Polito family but also the youngest of the victims.

One week on from the crash, the victim's families were taken to the spot where their loved one died.

It started to rain. The Politos - joined by Daniele's older siblings Carl and Kelly who had travelled home from abroad - raised a glass of bucks fizz in his honour, with Leslye's daughter-in-law taking part on Facetime from Japan. They heard the trumpeter play The Last Post on the Shoreham Tollbridge in the distance. At 1.22pm exactly, the rain subsided and there was silence.

In the following months Leslye sought solace in walking by the sea and keeping busy, but Marina, now 26, said she instead ate sweets that Daniele loved and junk food dutifully brought to her by her supportive friends. Her brother loved swimming and she was previously disinterested whereas now she finds herself in the pool every week.

She said: "We were like twins - as we got older we found we had a lot in common but we would also argue. I remember getting so annoyed when he came home, put his music on so loud. Now I miss that noise, I almost want to listen to it. I wish more than anything we could go swimming together. Doing it makes me feel closer to him somehow."

Her fondest memory is making up a silly catchphrase as children on holiday which they continued to use as they grew older.

Leslye said: "Not a day goes by that I don't think of him. We talk about him a lot. I am forever saying 'my four children' and then correcting myself to three - but he is still with us.

"He was cheeky, lovable, friendly, helpful. He had a disarming smile and all women fell for him. I will always remember when he was young how he deliberately would lose me in the supermarket just so he could get his name read out on the tannoy. Teachers described him as making all the wrong choices for the right reasons, which was so true."

While she adores the regular time she gets to spend with her grandson, she says it is can be bittersweet as he is so like his father.

She is incredibly grateful to her friends, family and the family liaison officers who have, and continue to be, so supportive.

She added: "It was amazing to see so many messages and tributes on the bridge. I've kept some that people left - like the guitar and Newcastle scarf."

She was inundated by messages from strangers who said Daniele had encouraged them to follow their dreams.

"This was a whole other side of him we never knew," she added.

A framed picture of Daniele and his signature "silly grin" sits pride of place in their living room.

The family are among those attending a memorial at St Mary de Haura Church in Shoreham on Saturday. They will host a private balloon release on Sunday near his memorial bench on Goring seafront before visiting the tollbridge on Monday for the official one year anniversary.