A GOOD Samaritan has replaced a memorial plaque in honour of a borough boy after it was trashed by vandals.
The tribute which remembers ten-year-old Ellis Smith, who tragically died after being hit by a bus, was vandalised in August last year. The wooden memorial was originally placed on Church Hill Way where he lost his life in July 2008 after he was in a collision with a bus while riding his bicycle.
But the plinth was removed and broken while flowers marking the anniversary of his death were also strewn about nearby.
Since the incident a number of people have contacted Ellis’ mum Julie Headley requesting to replace the plaque and nothing ever came of it. But the family were surprised by a friend – who wishes to remain anonymous – who contacted them to say he had replaced it for free.
Ms Headley said: “We just couldn’t believe it. He said to me had walked past and saw it was damaged and wanted to do something.
“People have the best intentions but you never expect them to actually go through with it and then he told me it had been done. It is really nice, I wasn’t expecting it at all. There’s a bit that looks like marble and his name is on there and a picture of Ellis he must have got from my Facebook.
“I never like to walk past it anyway because it is so difficult but to see it go from nothing there at all to this is just so nice.
“We just need to paint the plinth and then it will be perfect.
“I just want to thank him for it. I had £30 given to us to put towards getting it replaced but just didn’t know where to start or how to get it done and I want him to have that money. I just can’t thank him enough.”
