Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Page 29life
BOY WONDER
g Page 29dressing, and to give her more time to
concentrate on Parys. ‘I couldn’t cope
without help, but I put in 200 per cent
effort because I know there is always
the threat that he could be taken
away,’ she said.
How heartrending Alison’s words
seem now. ‘One social worker threat-
ened to have him taken away because I
couldn’t find help, but he will never be
taken away from me. I’ve had to work
hard for everything in my life. Nothing
is going to make me lose my son.’
And so TV viewers watched the years
pass. They saw Parys starting school,
his mum taking him into class, deter-
mined to be like any other mother.
Later he would ride in on the arm of
his mother’s wheelchair, something he
did even aged 13. Alison recalled a
headteacher who had the temerity to
tell Parys to get down. ‘I said: “Excuseme, you see other parents
walking arm-in-arm with their
children, this is the way we do
it, so don’t tell him to get off
my chair.” ’
There were all the regular
moments that make a child-
hood: swimming trips together,
playing together. One docu-
mentary clip shows Parys
making a playdough mould of
‘me in your tummy’.
‘Roll it, Mummy,’ he says.
‘How am I going to do that?’
she asks.
‘With your chin,’ says Parys,
matter-of-factly.
Life was, however, by no means
easy. Alison spoke of mental
health challenges when Parys
was about eight and mother and
son talked about the pressures
of growing up with a constant
flow of other people moving in
and out of their lives, not to
mention the overwhelming glare
of being in the public eye.
‘It’s great having a famous mum,
but the downside is she’s always
talking to everybody,’ said Parys,
as he neared his 13th birthday.W
HEN season ten
of Child Of Our
Time aired in 2013,
Alison spoke
movingly of her son growing up
and of the future that lay ahead.
‘I look at him and my baby’s gone
and I can see glimpses of the man he
is going to look like coming through;
the way he walks, the way he carries
himself, a little bit different.
‘As he grows and changes, I hope
we will always have that relationship.
I’ve done my best and I hope I
haven’t done too badly.’
The last glimpse viewers had of
Parys was in 2017, when aged 16, still
blond and a strikingly handsome
young man, he said: ‘I definitely want
to have my own place, my own family,
a new life, really. You can do what
you want when you’re older, you can
be whoever you want to be.’
Tomorrow, the mother who strove
to give him the normal childhood she
was denied will attend her son’s
funeral at Worthing Crematorium.
She has requested as many noisy
motorbikes as possible to escort
Parys on his final journey, one last
act from a determined mother for
her beloved son.So close: Mischievous blond-haired Parys
with his mother in 2006 and (right) in 2007Artist and son: At home in
Shoreham-by-Sea in 2014 and
(inset) at work in Hyde ParkTrailblazing art: In front of her
statue in Trafalgar Square in 2005Pictures: CAMERA PRESS/ANDREW HASSON; REX/SHUTTERSTOCK;COLIN DAVEY; ANDREW DUNSMORE/REX; CHARLIE HOLDING/SCOPE