SICK VANDALS IN ATTACK ON BOY’S MEMORIAL
Cruel thugs have vandalised a commemorative tree for a young boy who died from cancer and slashed open teddies from his funeral. The devastated family of Braiden Prescott (pictured) had decorated the tree in tribute to the seven-year-old who died during his third battle with the disease in September.
CRUEL thugs have vandalised a commemorative tree for a young boy who died from cancer and slashed open teddies from his funeral.
The devastated family of Braiden Prescott had decorated the tree in tribute to the seven-year-old, who died during his third battle with the disease in September.
The brave schoolboy lost his battle against the illness in September last year after being diagnosed, aged two.
To remember him, his mum and dad set up a memorial on Firs Park in Wigan – close to his former home.
But on Thursday night everything was ripped from the tree, including an A4 photo of Braiden, teddies from his funeral and a toy train and carriage he used to play with.
So on Friday his mum Stephanie joined family and friends to replenish what was taken and decorate it again.
Yet by Saturday morning it had been ripped down again, with cable ties cut, teddies sliced open and the contents scattered in various bins around the park.
It was Steph’s 16-year-old brother Kane Reece who picked the tree for Braiden as it’s close to his home and on Firs Park where they used to take Braiden before he moved from Leigh to Ince, Wigan.
Steph, also mum to sons Tyler and Kody, said: “On Friday we stood in the pouring rain for an hour with my boys decorating the tree again. We’d done a great job, it looked fab again and a picture was put back on.
“On Saturday I got another message to say things had been removed once again. I went to the park and met a few people there and they had been scouring the park all morning for his decorations.
“There are 12 bins on that park and each bin had bits of his decorations in them, so it’s obvious it’s somebody who knows what they were doing. All the cable ties had been cut and all his teddies on the tree had been sliced open.”
Steph, who also lives with husband Wayne, plans to redecorate the tree this Friday, pinning a notice to it confirming that they have the council’s permission for it to be there.
They have reported the incidents to the police but been told they can’t take any action when there is no evidence.
She added: “We just cannot believe some sick cold-hearted individual could do this to us, my family and friends. It’s for us to remember Braiden by and they are ruining it, my brother is so upset about it all.”
Braiden was just two years old when he was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma and despite treatment including chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, radiotherapy and immunotherapy in America, his cancer returned for a third time.