St Leonard's Primary School memorial to Billie Bainbridge
Staff of St Leonard's Primary School in Exeter are taking part in a four- or nine-mile sponsored walk across Dartmoor on 9 June in order to raise funds to create a permanent reminder of Billie Bainbridge's time in the school's Foundation year. Billie died peacefully at home on the afternoon of Friday 1 June 2012, nearly a year after she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. She was just five years and five weeks old. She was an extraordinary little girl who will always be loved and never forgotten by all who knew her.
Until the beginning of June 2011, Billie Bainbridge was just like any other lively four year old little girl, full of life and looking forward to starting school. Then without warning she began to show signs that something was wrong. Within days she was diagnosed with the worst type of brain stem tumour, so dangerous that surgery is impossible. As if this wasn’t bad enough, a few months earlier Billie’s mum Terri was diagnosed with breast cancer. See Billie’s Story for more.
The plan is to create a memory wall which will feature wooden/decorated butterflies placed around a sand-blasted memorial stone. The memorial will be engraved with the special poem that was read out at Billie's funeral:
A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam
And for a brief moment its glory and beauty belong to our world.
But then it flies on again
And though we wish it could have stayed
we feel so lucky
to have known it.
If you would like to make a donation towards this effort, please send to St Leonard's Primary School Office, St Leonard's Road, Exeter EX2 4NQ.
