Wish comes true for truck-mad Heather (From The Oxford Times)

Wish comes true for truck-mad Heather

5:00pm Friday 8th February 2013 in News

BRAVE Heather Hiorns’s wish came true when a charity treated her to a visit to trucking company Eddie Stobart.

The Starlight Children’s Foundation arranged for the 10-year-old to visit the firm last month.

Heather, a pupil at Orchard Field Community School, Banbury, met Stobart Group chief operating officer William Stobart, son of the company’s famous namesake.

The firm has become a household name as parents challenge their children to spot its lorries – which carry girls’ names – on long journeys.

Heather, from Cromwell Road, Bretch Hill, has learning difficulties and cerebral palsy in her legs.

Mum Alison Hiorns put her forward to the foundation, which arranged the visit and paid for a taxi to the firm’s depot in Crick, Northamptonshire.

She said: “She had a wonderful time. She is still talking about it.

“It started off when we started going to hospital. She would get bored on the journey and we said ‘look out for Stobart lorries’.”

Mrs Hiorns said the prospect of the visit helped Heather through three weeks at Oxford’s Children’s Hospital in September when she had an operation on her legs.

She was determined to go through physio so she could walk for the January 24 visit to the firm.

And the thrilled youngster was told during her visit that one of the trucks in its new fleet will be named after her.

Mrs Hiorns said: “She was really excited, thrilled.”

Foundation spokesman Henny Vere Nicoll said: “A Starlight wish gives a seriously ill child something wonderful to focus on, which helps to take their mind off their illness and treatment.

“We are delighted to have been able to grant Heather’s wish and are very grateful to William Stobart and his team for helping to make her dream come true.”

Heather’s sister Kate, 17, is to take part in the March 24 Banbury Run for the London charity, which grants wishes for seriously and terminally ill children.