Image of Captain Tom

Sculptor Andrian Melka has been busy in his York studio, working on a clay portrait of Captain Sir Tom Moore and a small-scale maquette that shows his design for a bronze statue that he plans to donate to a hospital. Captain Tom, a Second World War veteran, died this month at the age of 100.

A bone cancer survivor will join a billionaire on Spacex’s first private spaceflight this autumn.

St Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced that Hayley Arceneaux will serve as its ambassador in space.

She said that after beating cancer as a child, rocketing into orbit should be a piece of cosmic cake.

She will launch alongside tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and two yetto-be-chosen contest winners.

Mr Isaacman hopes to use his mission to raise $200 million (£142m) for St Jude, half of that his own money.

Ms Arceneaux, 29, a physician assistant, will become the youngest American in space – beating Nasa recordholder Sally Ride by more than two years when she blasts off.

She will also be the first to launch with a prosthesis.

When she was 10, she had surgery at St Jude to replace her knee and get a titanium rod in her left thigh bone.

She still limps and suffers occasional leg pain, but has been cleared for flight by Spacex.

She will serve as the crew’s medical officer.

“My battle with cancer really prepared me for space travel,” she said.

“It made me tough, and then also I think it really taught me to expect the unexpected and go along for the ride.”

She wants to show her young patients and other cancer survivors that “the sky is not even the limit any more”.

“It’s going to mean so much to these kids to see a survivor in space,” she said.

Mr Isaacman announced his space mission on February 1.

As the flight’s selfappointed commander, he offered one of the four Spacex Dragon capsule seats to St Jude.