THE mother of Amersham teenager Aaron West has hailed a "lovely gesture" from the town's Mayor with a fundraising photoshoot for the sports academy set up in her son's name.

Dax West has been raising money to help run a goalkeeping academy set up in Aaron's memory and has been given a helping hand from Amersham Mayor Mimi Harker.

Cllr Harker was a torchbearer during the Olympic torch relay, and at an academy training session on Wednesday youngsters queued up to have their photo taken with her torch.

It raised more than £200, which will help the academy to continue running.
The academy was set up in memory of 16-year-old Aaron, a promising goalkeeper with dreams of becoming a professional footballer who died from a rare form of cancer in 2010.

Mrs West said: "It was a lovely gesture for Mimi to come and support the event. She's been behind it from day one, she's been fantastic."

Cllr Harker said: "I wanted to do a fundraiser. What Dax is doing is absolutely fantastic. So many young people are benefitting from it and I wanted to do something to make sure it keeps going.

"The first time I met Dax I was so bowled over by her bravery, character and personality despite going through the most awful situation that no parent wants to be in. She's using it to create this academy to benefit other young people in her son's memory."