Mother of teenage cancer victim to attend his high school prom
Jak Trueman's classmates have invited her to attend in his place after he lost his life in February.
The mother of a brave cancer victim will attend his prom after she received a touching invite from his classmates.
Jak Trueman died aged 15 in February this year, a matter of days after fulfilling one of his final wishes to take his girlfriend to the school prom.
Friends had hastily managed to arrange a makeshift dance at a local football club, with the real thing not scheduled for another two years.
The brave teenager overcame his pain, wore a smart suit and accompanied his girlfriend Hannah Boyd in his wheelchair to the 'prom' at a suite at Livingston Football Club, West Lothian.
Tragically, it was one of Jak's final outings as he lost his battle against rare Gammadelta T-Cell Lymphoma just 48 hours later.
Now Jak's mother Allison Barr has received a touching invite to join his school friends at their real end of high school prom at the West Calder High School.
Allison, from Mid Calder, described receiving the invite from senior pupils Lorna Martin and Jordan Drummond as "an emotional moment".
"I was completely blown away when I opened the envelope and saw the invite," she said.
"I burst into tears, it completely took my breath away. It's so unexpected.
"As if one prom wasn't enough - to remember my boy in such a lovely and poignant way is simply amazing."
Lorna, who delivered the invitation, was born the day before Jak in the same room at hospital.
Together with her friend Jordan, she managed to receive permission from their school headteacher to invite Jak's mother to their dance.
"What beautiful and caring girls," says Allison.
"I'm so excited, but I'll probably need five boxes of tissues to get through it.
"This is a huge honour."
Jak was in his fourth year when he fell ill. He lost his brave fight just two weeks after learning there was nothing doctors could do to save his life.
He pledged to make every final minute count, and launched a major fundraising drive to help other young people battling cancer and within days he had raised more than £40,000.
He even arranged for flowers to be sent to his girlfriend, his mother and his gran after his death.
Allison now plans to attend the event which will be held next June at Houston House Hotel in West Lothian, along with Jak's sister Aimie.
The invitation arrived just a few days before what would have been Jak's 17th birthday - his family plans to mark the day with a fundraising bowling day, on Sunday, September 18.
The 2017 prom will have a special gold theme to reflect the colours of the charity set up in Jak's name, the Team Jak Foundation.
Since it was launched, the charity has raised nearly £250,000.
Last year Jak's Den, a base for young cancer patients and their families to receive support and relax, was opened in Livingston.