Memorial bench to tragic pneumonia victim Callan unveiled

Callan Fendall-Betts, aged 15, died on New Year's Eve just days after developing a cough, leaving his family devastated.

But his mother Tracey Betts said the addition of the bench means he will still be able to be a part of their traditional holiday in Weymouth.

"It is something that was important to us," she said. "To be able to go there, have some chips with him and have a cry but still enjoy the rest of the holiday and make some new memories with his brother Jay."

The annual trip to Dorset is a ritual in the household and somewhere Callan, who was from Lower Gornal, loved to go.

While Callan's aunt, uncle and cousins have visited the bench, Tracey and her husband Mark have not had the chance to see it yet. She says it will be emotional the first time they do.

"It's going to be quite emotional. We went there from day one, it was somewhere Callan looked forward to going. I used to say to him as he got older he wouldn't want to come but he said 'don't be stupid, I'll always want to come'."

As well as their favourite seaside haunt, there are also plans to honour Callan closer to home.

His school Ellowes Hall Sports College, from where there were so many tributes following Callan's death, are planning to install their own bench, which will wrap around a tree and also pay tribute to another former pupil, 14-year-old cancer victim Danni Burrows, who died in 2014.

A plaque will also be added to the music hall and a musician of the year award named in his honour. Callan was a keen musician and played the piano and keyboard.

Tracey said: "The plaque in the music hall is a big thing for me. That's the biggest thing as a parent who has lost a child – not to have them vanish. We have lost him physically but we don't want him not to exist."

Ellowes Hall Sports College, where Jay is in Year 9, held a special assembly after Callan's death. Teachers and pupils were given blue ribbons while the children were also allowed to wear something blue in tribute.