AN ACCRINGTON author has written a children’s book in tribute to his daughter with proceeds going to the hospice where she died.

Mum Emma Kate Greenhalgh-Yates, was cared for at the East Lancs Hospice, Blackburn, after battling a brain tumour for seven years.

Her dad Steve Greenhalgh, 58, says staff at the hospice did everything they could for the 29-year-old, including arranging a touching wedding ceremony for her shortly before she died in June.

The published author has now penned a limited edition children’s story, dedicated to Emma’s five-year-old son Dylan.

The Wars Of The Weevils is aimed at eight to 12 year-olds and contains the trials and tribulations of communities of tiny seashore creatures.

The former RSPCA inspector began writing the tale when he was 18 and was often encouraged to finish it by his wife, Kathryn, and by Emma, who dreamed of becoming a published author herself.

Only 100 volumes of the work, which tell the story of weevils and krills at Tunnicliffe Beach in Yorkshire, will be available with all proceeds given to the East Lancs Hospice.

The hospice, where Emma’s husband Christopher, Dylan, Kathryn and Steve were able to stay by her side through her last weeks, relies largely on charitable donations.

Stephen says funds raised from the book will be used “to pay back the impossible debt we owe them.”

Emma had been diagnosed with the slow-growing brain tumour seven years earlier, after suffering an unexplained seizure in her final year studying English and creative writing at Lancaster University and just a few months before she discovered she was pregnant.

To protect her unborn baby, Emma suspended treatment until after his birth. Over the course of her illness, three operations, radiation and chemotherapy controlled the tumour up until May this year, when doctors told Emma and her family there was nothing more they could do.

Steve, who lives in the Barnfield area of Accrington, said: “She fought it all the way without complaint and she hoped the treatment would work. It did, but not in the long term. It was a traumatic time but without the absolutely wonderful care and individual attention she received at the hospice it would have been so much worse for all concerned.

“The wedding took place a few weeks after her arrival at the hospice and she managed to get through the ceremony. She was very ill by this time and it was a bitter-sweet day.

“She was a wonderful person, she never felt sorry for herself .”

Steve’s book is available at the hospice or can be ordered directly from the author. It is priced at £4.99.

To order a copy email sjg128@tiscali.co.uk.