A CHILDREN'S bench has been presented to St Peter's First School in Williton in memory of a young West Somerset girl who died from a rare illness.

Yasmin Dare was just nine months old when she died from osteopetrosis, a disease which can only be beaten by a bone marrow transplant and which affects just a handful of families in the UK.

At the time of her death some six years ago, her mother Alison Gould, who was then living in Watchet, launched a memorial fund in her daughter's memory.

This week she contacted the Free Press to say the fund was still going strong and the children's bench for the play area at St Peter's School was just one of a number of items bought in Yasmin's memory.

Unfortunately, Alison's five and a half year-old son Ryan was also diagnosed with the disease when he was just two days old.

At seven weeks, he had a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor and today is the only person to have a successful operation to combat the disease.

But even now, he is unlikely ever to be given the 'all-clear' by medical staff.

Alison said she wanted to reassure everyone who had offered their support over the years that Ryan was doing well and enjoying being at St Peter's School, as the family had since moved to Williton.

She decided to donate a bench as previously the only seating in the school playground was adult-sized.

Ryan could not be persuaded to have his photograph taken alongside the bench given in his sister's memory, so the honours passed to his younger brother Tristan, who is pictured with his grandmother Pam Pope.

Photo: Steve Guscott