HAZEL'S STILL HERE

A HEARTBROKEN Scots mum plans to turn tragedy into hope and raise pounds 250,000 in memory of her beloved daughter.

Joan Aiton's daughter Hazel died last August at the age of 21 in a car accident only yards from her Berwickshire home.

The university student had just finished a year teaching in the poor southern African state of Namibia.

While there, she climbed that continent's highest mountain - Mount Kilimanjaro - to raise pounds 7500 for a new school building.

Now her mother Joan and father Bill from Earlston, near Melrose, have captured her adventurous spirit by setting up a charity in her name.

And they have have followed their daughter's footsteps by climbing 19,000ft Kilimanjaro themselves, and raising pounds 45,000 for Hazel's Footprints Trust.

The trust will fund people who want to work in the third world and will make an annual donation to Otjikondo Village School, where the dedicated young Scot worked among local children who thought the world of her.

Joan, 50, said: "We know nothing will replace our loving daughter but we didn't want what she had done and stood for to be forgotten.

"She set out to make a difference and help others and that is what she achieved."

She has also left some remarkably warm memories among family and friends.

"Anyone who met Hazel couldn't forget her," said Joan. "She was beautiful not just on the outside but on the inside too, and had so much zest for life.

"That is why we decided to set up this charity ...to carry on what she had begun and help other young people who want to go out and make a difference to the world the way that she did."

Bill, a 53-year-old farmer, said: "The response we had has been incredible. We received so many letters from people who knew Hazel at Durham University.

The family have published Hazel's journal from her year abroad, called A Gap in the Life, which details all her experiences in Africa.

More than 2000 copies have been sold so far and demand shows no signs of diminishing.

Joan added: "Hazel packed more into her 21 years than most people do in a lifetime.

"We miss her terribly - as do all her friends and family - but this trust will continue her legacy and she will never be forgotten."

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