Final push on £50k tribute to Jamie

THE family of two-year-old Shaw gas-blast victim Jamie Heaton is launching a final push to raise £50,000 in his memory.

A memorial bench funded by Shaw Parish Council was unveiled by Jamie’s father Kenny and parish council chairman Chris Stephens at Dunwood Park yesterday. The second anniversary of the toddler’s death is tomorrow.

The Jamie’s Something Special fund, set-up by parents Kenny and Michelle, has so far raised around £30,000 to improve Bullcote Park, Heyside, in which Jamie took his first steps.

Organisers are currently arranging a concert at Crompton Cricket Club in August that they hope will push them over the line.

Sylvia Robinson, Jamie’s great aunt, said: “Both Kenny and Michelle have been very impressed with the way everybody in the community has responded since it happened.

“A lot of people have provided services for free and the family have been overwhelmed by the support shown to them.”

The blast, which is thought to have caused around £1.2 million of damage, tore through eight homes on Buckley Street in June, 2012.

Jamie, who was watching television when the blast happened, was killed almost immediately and his body was pulled from the rubble by emergency services.