Draycott Cerne's brave Daisy (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Draycott Cerne's brave Daisy

9:35am Thursday 31st May 2012 in Chippenham By Alex Winter

First teenager Daisy Barker braved the crowds to carry the Olympic flame, now she wants to jump out of a plane.

The 13-year-old Sheldon School student, who lives with her family in Draycott Cerne, was nominated by mum Rachel, who suffers with brain cancer.

The year nine student has always helped to cook, clean, and take care of little sister Hermione, 11, because of Mrs Barker’s illness, but she isn’t stopping there, and she is hoping that later this year she can convince her parents to let her jump out of a plane for Cancer Research.

Daisy’s mum Rachel, 43, needs help around the house when dad Ren, a deep sea diver, is away on business. The teenager said: “I help to take care of my mum because she has cancer.

“I just do some cooking and cleaning and things like that to help out.”

Mrs Barker was diagnosed with a brain tumour 11 years ago, and has since undergone three operations and a round of chemotherapy.

She will have to go through chemotherapy again after learning the tumour has grown another 15mm.

“Daisy has always been absolutely fantastic, she has seen some nasty things happen to me, like seizures, which was pretty awful for her,” she said.

“She was brilliant during all of that. Daisy and her little sister Hermione have done some little fundraising things like baking cakes and and car boot sales. She now has in her mind that she’d like to jump out of a plane for charity, and I’d love to do it with her if I could, but her dad isn’t keen.”

Mr Barker, 47, said: “Daisy is the eldest of the girls, and so the responsibility when I was away often fell to her.

“It has affected all of us very deeply, and Daisy was very worried, but she has taken it all on and has become much more positive.”

She said she was nervous before running with the torch in Wootton Bassett last Wednesday, fearing she might drop it or set her hair alight, but added: “You forget about the people and you forget about the cameras in front of you, and all you think about is carrying the torch. It was very exciting.”

Mrs Barker said watching Daisy carrying the torch was a lovely moment.

“Everyone was crying when they saw her coming through,” she said.