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6 November 2019

Vol 26 l Issue 45

www.champnews.com

Festive Pull out Inside

Jack raises £2,000-plus for hospital

INSIDE THIS WEEK:

RENEWED APPEAL IN MEMORY OF BLOSSOM

Local community and businesses urged to help charity named after tragic tot to achieve £500,000 funding target to create dedicated swimming training centre

Boogie Storm from Britain’s Got Talent will be performing. “However, we need raffle prizes for the auction and we also need companies to sponsor casino tables. “The headteacher at Blossom’s school, St Francis has been terrific and the archdiocese has already promised us a plot of land to build our centre. “The aim is that the centre would be somewhere where children could learn life skills to swim.

Report by Henry James ORGANISERS of the charity Blossom’s Legacy, launched following the tragic death of four-yearold Blossom Iris Kelly from Skelmersdale who drowned in a swimming pool during a family holiday in, Spain in 2016 are making a renewed appeal to the local community and businesses to help them achieve their goal. The Legacy is raising funds to build a dedicated centre where children can be taught skills and given the tools to allow them to be able to learn to swim from a very early age. But although the charity has already achieved so much they are desperate for support to help them achieve the estimated £500,000 target needed to get the centre up and running. After being pulled from the pool in their hotel in Girona, little Blossom was airlifted to hospital in Barcelona but doctors could not save her and her mother, Vicky had to make the heart-wenching decision to switch off her life support. Blossom had been at swimming lessons for 18 months and was “very excited” about the holiday. Following their loss, Vicky and Blossom’s dad Kris, came up with the idea of the charity, named after their little girl, with the aim of ensuring other parents didn’t suffer the same heartache. The charity was officially launched at St Francis of Assisi RC Primary School in Blakehall, where Blossom had been a pupil. They have already been promised land by the

Amazing

Blossom Iris Kelly.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese on which to build the centre but it’s thought they need to raise half a million pounds to achieve their goal. Latest fundraiser is a Motown Night on Saturday, November 16 at the Lancashire Manor Hotel in Skelmersdale. Blossom’s nanny, Sue Kelly, said: “We hold a fundraiser every year at the Lancashire Manor. This is the third one we have organised and it’s always a fabulous night. “There will be food, drinks on arrival, a casino, and

MOT

Grimrod Palace, Gillibrands Road, CLASS 1&2 Skelmersdale, WN8 9UU Tel: 01695 724024

MOT CLASS 4

“The local pools, Nye Bevan and Ormskirk Park Pool are always full and the youngsters couldn’t be afforded the time to properly learn the necessary skills. “ The community support we have had so far has been amazing with people holding fundraising events such as Morris Dancing troupes and Halloween parties but we need huge help to get our name out there. “There are millions of pounds which charities can bid for and we hope West Lancs Council can help us with advice about how to go about accessing these funds. “This facility is essential. We don’t want anyone else to go through what we have experienced. Children's safety in water is so important and it would be open to people from surrounding districts to use as well.” Tickets for the Motown Night costs £40 per person or £350 for a table of 10. For more information visit the Blossom’s Legacy page on Facebook.

New police task force launched A ‘DEDICATED’ task force of police officers is due to start operating in West Lancashire from today (Wednesday, November 6), tacking the issues that “matter most to residents”. The task force is made up of a proactive team of four officers, with the responsibility for tackling local priorities including drug-dealing, antisocial behaviour and burglary, alongside disrupting organised crime group activity and targeting outstanding offenders. There will be similar teams of four or five officers spread across nine areas in the county. Specialist target teams are also being strengthened to tackle cross-border crime and criminality, focusing on burglary and robbery and there has been an uplift in detectives following public feedback to prioritise investigations around major crimes, child exploitation and domestic abuse. A new drone team is also operational across the force, with two drones paid for by the proceeds of crime, and a team of four officers funded by the council tax precept. This new technology has been “invaluable” supporting policing operations including events, missing people and warrants. The new neighbourhood tasking team is about reconnecting with the communities across Lancashire and getting back to proactive policing and dealing with community concerns. Supintendent Karen Edwards, who oversees policing in West Lancashire, said: “The task force will be a welcome addition to policing in the area of West Lancashire and I hope it will provide some reassurance to our local communities. We will see them focusing on the issues that matter most to residents as well as those we have identified as the greatest risk, including anti social behaviour, knife crime, organised crime and drug dealing.”

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