Carmel Kazemi remains overwhelmed by the loss of her youngest son Shakil in EastEnders next week as the murdered schoolboy’s family and friends prepare to say a final goodbye to him.
Shakil was brutally stabbed to death last month by a knife wielding gang who arrived in the Square looking for Keegan Taylor who had stolen a bike.
Read more: First look at Shakil Kazemi’s funeral
While Keegan was stabbed too, he was found by Mick Carter, but Shakil collapsed out of view and medics were unable to save his life when he was finally discovered.
Since then Carmel has been in bits, almost taking her own life at one point because her grief has been so deep.
As the week kicks off Denise and Kush are concerned about Carmel’s state of mind as she refuses to get involved in planning Shakil’s funeral, throwing herself into her youth club scheme instead.
But it’s actually Keegan who confronts Carmel about her reluctance to get involved in planning her son’s funeral.
As she hears him out she finally breaks down and shares some harsh words with Keegan.
Later his words resonate with her and she heads off to the funeral parlour.
But she leaves Jay stunned when she tells him to cancel all the tributes and that no one else is welcome at the funeral – she just wants it to be her boy and her.
As the day of the funeral dawns, Kush – along with Umar and Darius – prepare for the emotional day they have ahead of them.
Despite what Carmel told Jay, Kush insists that the funeral will go as planned.
Carmel then ignores Kush’s pleas to attend Shakil’s funeral and he and Denise are left shaken when they discover that Carmel has gone missing.
As everyone heads to the church to say goodbye to Shakil, Denise desperately tried to find Carmel.
Will she be able to find her? And will she be able to convince her to attend Shakil’s funeral and say goodbye to her son?
It was recently revealed that EastEnders would break from traditional soap tradition for Shakil’s funeral and include some real life accounts of knife crime victims and their families in the episode.
It’s a first for EastEnders and Executive Consultant John Yorke explained why it’s so important.
He said: “From the very beginning we were determined to treat the difficult subject of knife crime in a responsible, non-sensationalist way.
“We started out with detailed research, and the more stories we heard the more we felt other people should hear them too.
“The episode gradually evolved into something unique for EastEnders – real families telling their own devastating stories alongside our own characters.”
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Shakil’s funeral will air on Friday July 6th at 8pm on BBC One