Nine-year-old author's heart-warming World Book Day tale of being her mum's cancer-fighting sidekick
A nine-year-old girl from Shrewsbury has written a book about being her cancer-fighting mum's helpful sidekick and hopes it will help other children in her situation.
Nine-year-old Liberty Preston hasn't let her dyslexia stop her from putting pen to paper in a bid to help other children whose parents are battling cancer.
Her mum Lucy Preston, 49, was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 2023.
Last summer, young Liberty raised money and awareness for breast cancer by hosting an afternoon tea and a pink ribbon event at her school, St George's Junior School in Shrewsbury.
Now, Liberty has written a story about the ways children can support their parents, and her mum has turned it into a book to celebrate World Book Day.
Lucy explained: "Liberty is dyslexic, so me and her tutor have been encouraging her to do more writing. She's got an amazing imagination.
"Last year I had more cancer treatment, and she's been talking about writing a story about it and she came up with this. It's completely bonkers, but a really lovely story."
'Radioactive Girl and her sidekick' tells the tale of Rose, a young girl who helps her superhero mum battle the enemy inside with love, kindness and courage.
"Kids just feel so utterly helpless when their parents are battling anything and feel like there's nothing they can do," Lucy said.
"But if you show them to be kind and brave and show lots of love - to be your sidekick - that's how they can help their parents."
"About a week and a half ago we were talking about what Liberty wanted to do for World Book Day, she said she wanted to be Taylor Swift and I told her Taylor Swift wasn't a book. She said if she was going to be from a book, she wanted it to be from her book."
So Lucy got about turning Liberty's tale into a book, with AI to produce illustrations.
"I shared a digital link with a group I'm in on Facebook and sent the link to quite a few mums who have cancer and they wanted it for their kids," said Lucy.
"Liberty was so pleased - absolutely thrilled. She felt like she was doing some good and that other kids in her position were able to read it."
On World Book Day on Thursday, Liberty "bounced" into school dressed up in her Radioactive Girl costume, that mum Lucy had finished the night before.
With dreams of seeing the book in cancer centres at hospitals, Lucy hopes that someone will sponsor the book to make it into print.
Those interested in reading Liberty's story can do so online at tinyurl.com/2j6d2yrf.
Anyone interested in helping to get the book printed is asked to email Lucy at lucy_preston24@hotmail.com.
