Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 27, 2019 Page 5
Found dead, teenage son of
artist who posed pregnant
for Trafalgar Square plinth
replica featured in the opening
ceremony of the 2012 London
Paralympics.
Miss Lapper, 54, from Brighton,
has never named Parys’s father,
who left her before he was born.
In the face of great opposition
she fought to bring him up on her
own, as she had been abandoned
as an infant by her parents and
grew up in institutions.
‘When I saw him, I just cried
and cried,’ she said movingly
after his birth at 35 weeks in 2000.
‘The emotions I felt were inde-
scribable. I had never imagined IA SCULPTURE of her at seven months preg-
nant became one of the country’s most famous
art works when it appeared on the fourth plinth
in Trafalgar Square.
But just over a decade on, disabled artist Alison
Lapper has been left devastated after her teenage
son Parys was found dead.
The news was confirmed by Miss Lapper’s fiance Si Clift,
who said: ‘Tragically, Parys Lapper, who was only 19 years
old, died suddenly a week ago.’ He did not give any further
details of the death.
Miss Lapper, who was born without arms and with short-
ened legs, posed for Marc Quinn in 2000, and his marble
sculpture was on display in Trafalgar Square from 2005 to
late 2007. ‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’ was hailed at the most
powerful work by a British artist in decades, and a large‘My greatest art’:
Alison Lapper with
Parys. Above: With
her newborn sonDon’t panic... the Pill doesn’t
make you fatter, women told
Iconic: ‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’ in Trafalgar SquareTAKING the Pill does not make you fat,
experts declared yesterday.
The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive
Healthcare said women of reproductive age
simply tend to gain weight over time – and
no type of contraceptives affect this.
The FSRH’s ‘clinical effectiveness unit’
has published research on weight gain
among women who use a number ofwidely-used contraceptives. A study of 68
women, with 42 taking the Pill and 26 not
using any contraception, found that ‘while
users of the Pill may gain some weight
during use, there is no evidence that itsuse causes significant weight gain’. Dr
Sarah Hardman, director of the unit, said:
‘Women gain on average a similar amount
of weight over time whether they are using
hormonal contraception or not. Averageweight gain during use of contraceptive
pills, the implant and the hormonal coil is
modest and not significantly different to
weight gain with no contraception or non-
hormonal contraception.’
The first contraceptive pills in the 1960s
contained more of the hormones oestrogen
and progestogen.
High doses of the former can lead to water
retention and appetite increase – both of
which can lead to weight gain.By Xantha Leatham and Mike Bediganwas going to be a mother, never
thought it could be possible. But
when they placed him on my
shoulder and I gave him a little
kiss on his head and said “hello”,
I was overwhelmed.’
Parys’s life was watched by mil-
lions of BBC viewers in the
acclaimed documentary series
Child of Our Time, presented by
Professor Robert Winston.
The idea was to chart the lives of
25 youngsters until they reached
their 20th birthdays. Parys is the
only one of the 25 to have diedbefore reaching that milestone.
Miss Lapper, who overcame her
disabilities to achieve a first-class
honours degree in fine art at
Brighton University and forge ahonorary doctorate at Brighton,
she described Parys as ‘my great-
est piece of artwork and creation’.
Mr Clift described Parys as ‘a
mischievous, generous, kind, lov-
ing, frustrating, cheeky, forgiving,
beautiful boy’. He added: ‘He was
his own man. He was a good son.’
Miss Lapper had initially refused
to pose for Quinn, worried how he
would depict disability, but
agreed after he argued many of
the greatest sculptures are miss-
ing limbs.
The fourth plinth, intended tohold a statue of King William IV,
was empty for 150 years before
becoming a showcase for a rolling
series of art works from 1999.
The funeral for Parys will be held
on Thursday at Worthing Crema-
torium. Mr Clift appealed to local
motorcyclists to join the proces-
sion for the motorbike fan.
He added: ‘Ali has expressed a
dear wish that she would abso-
lutely love to see as many noisy
motorbikes as possible to escort
Parys on his final journey from her
home to celebrate his life.’‘A kind, cheeky,
beautiful boy’
By Richard
Eden
career as an artist herself, was
awarded an MBE for services to art
in 2003. In an emotional speech in
2014, when she was awarded an