AFTER thirteen years of grief following the death of her son, Beatrice Crawford tackled her demons with a trek along the Great Wall of China.

Ten years on from that journey, she has written a book to help other bereaved parents and raise money for East Oxford hospice Helen & Douglas House.

The North Oxford resident raised £17,000 for hospices in Birmingham from the trek.

But a decade on, the walk is still helping to raise cash for good causes closer to home.

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A JustGiving page linked to her book Voices on the Great Wall has already brought in more than £1,000 for Helen & Douglas House.

All royalties from the book will be donated to the children and young people’s hospice in Magdalen Road.

Mrs Crawford, whose son Eric died in an accident at the age of 23 in 1992, said: “I saw a leaflet 10 years ago advertising a 100km walk of the Great Wall of China to raise money for children’s hospice charities in Birmingham.

“The first time I saw the Great Wall it cast a spell on me.

“I walked with the group for 10 days and I felt somehow in communion with the Great Wall.

“I felt that my son was pushing me on and speaking in my ear.

“When I came home I decided to write a book about it and it has taken me nearly 10 years to do that.”

The book was published in December and went on sale on Amazon in January.

Mrs Crawford, 78, said: “I wanted to write a book for bereaved parents to help them find hope in the darkness.

“When my son passed away my initial idea was that I would have liked to help in the hospice to work with bereaved parents.

“But I could not do that because I do not have the qualifications so I decided to raise money so I could help hospices pay for those services.

“What I experienced on the Great Wall helped me recover my resilience and vitality and I felt this was an experience that I needed to share.

“I am doing it all for my beautiful, strong boy.”

After spending almost 10 years writing the book Mrs Crawford, married to Frederick, published it herself using self-publish website completelynovel.com. It is on sale on that website as well as Amazon. To find out more, visit justgiving.com/bsbook