A woman has written a book about a boy from Cold Ash who died from a brain tumour 17 years ago.<\/p>\n
Willie Foster-Horton was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour two weeks before his third birthday.<\/p>\n
Sue Smith with her book<\/p>\n
He later died aged seven following many operations, chemotherapy and intense radiotherapy.<\/p>\n
But now his family, friends and former teachers have remembered the joy he brought to their lives.<\/p>\n
Susie Smith, who met Willie’s mother and sister at a chance meeting in a park in 2003, presented a copy of her book My Wings, written about Willie\u2019s life, to St Mark\u2019s School in Cold Ash, which Willie attended for three years.<\/p>\n
The story gives an insight into how many people became involved in Willie\u2019s life over the years.<\/p>\n
Sue Smith with her book with Staff from Primary School, friends and family<\/p>\n
Mrs Smith said: \u201cHe lives in all the hearts of those fortunate to have know him, and he is remembered fondly on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a brave young boy that touched the hearts of so many in his short time on earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole school community went out of their way to help Willie enjoy school life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willie joined the school when he was five, with severe learning difficulties.<\/p>\n
It was there he found his hero in the form of headteacher Mitch Warrender.<\/p>\n
Mr Warrender said he fondly remembers Willie coming into the Year 1 classroom, where he often played his guitar and asked if he could \u2018have a go\u2019.<\/p>\n
He said the whole school community were totally heartbroken when he passed away.<\/p>\n
Sue Smith with her book with Staff from Primary School, friends and family<\/p>\n
His favourite pastime was digging and after he died, the school named a mud garden after him.<\/p>\n
Wille lost his sight a few months before he died.<\/p>\n
His former classmate Hannah Walters recalled him touching her hair to identify her.<\/p>\n
She also remembered her mum bringing their tractor into the playground for Willie to drive around.<\/p>\n
Members of Willie\u2019s family also attended the book presentation at the school on Monday, June 30.<\/p>\n
They said: \u201cSusie is the most selfless and giving person we know and we feel incredibly blessed that our paths crossed in such a way all those years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book is available to buy on Amazon, Hungerford Book Shop or contact susan.smith313@ntlworld.com for more information.<\/p>\n
Up to 25 per cent of the net profits will be donated to the national charity Young Lives vs Cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has written a book about a boy from Cold Ash who died from a brain tumour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,29404,2266,77,609,8728,16,15,5900],"class_list":{"0":"post-247217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-divert-me","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-newbury","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-update-me"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114816033159141195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}