The father of James Lutterodt, the popular Keta Senior High Technical School past student, who tragically passed away on Monday, has shared his tireless efforts to save his son's life.

The boy was part of the KETASCO team that contested in the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) in 2021.

The trio made the finals but did not win the competition. However, their awesome performance won them praise as the first Volta regional school to make it that far in the annual contest.

Their exceptional performance was praised for challenging the perennial winners.

After James' death, his father Philip Dogbeda Lutterodt revealed that he lost his battle with a brief illness on Monday morning at a hospital in Tema.

• 2021 NSMQ Ketasco star dead

He said this while dispelling rumors purporting that James vomited blood.

"He experienced difficulty breathing," he told Accra-based CitiNews.

Mr Lutterodt says he noticed something was wrong when James returned home for vacation in April 2023.

"It has been an arduous journey. I observed something was wrong when he came home on vacation in April. I promptly attended to his health concerns and we conducted numerous tests to identify the cause of his illness until he passed away yesterday morning, he added.

The father also said James had also confided in him about incidents at the University of Ghana, but they have decided not to divulge those details yet.

Despite their profound grief, the family expressed gratitude to God for everything.

A close family friend earlier revealed that James had plans to study abroad after receiving admission offers from several international universities before his untimely passing.

Until his demise, James was pursuing a degree in Computer Science at the University of Ghana.