Award hope for farmer who put his family f irst
FOUR months ago, he was a 17-year- old schoolboy with plans to go to college and perhaps travel afterwards.
But Cameron Hendry’s world was shattered when his father died of a heart attack on Christmas Day last year, aged only 53.
Despite the tragedy, Cameron refused to let his mother Marianne and younger brother Duncan, 16, lose the business their father had built.
So he left school and postponed his dreams to take on the daunting task of running the family farm in Balquhidder, Stirlingshire.
Now his determination has earned him a BBC Countryfile Farming Hero Award nomination.
Cameron said: ‘It is daunting but I was never tempted to walk away. The work kept me going.
‘ It has been very tough trying to get to grips with dad not being here but we are managing.
‘ My dad al ways wanted me to work on the farm. I want to make him proud.’
Mrs Hendry, 47, was worried Cameron might f eel he was being forced to take over his father’s role – but he soon made his thoughts clear.
She said: ‘He stood in this kitchen and was adamant he was leaving school.
‘He told me, “Mum, I have lost my dad and I am not going to lose this farm as well – it’s our home”.’
Duncan, who wants to be a vet, said: ‘He deserves that title. I don’t know how anybody else would have coped.’
The winners of the BBC Food and Farming Awards, including Countryfile’s Farming Hero Award, will be announced at a ceremony in Bristol on Thursday.
Countryfile presenter Adam Henson, one of the judges, said: ‘Cameron has incredible resilience and maturity for one so young.’