From heartbreak TO HOPE

One woman and her twin sister are keeping their mother's memory alive by helping others in need

- TRACY GAYTON

Victoria Panton Bacon has just one photo of her oldest child being cradled by her mother – a snapshot she treasures. Because the day after her son’s birth, her mother, Elizabeth Panton, died in a horrific road accident, on her way to visit the new mum and baby in hospital.

Afterward, Victoria and them identical twin sister, Sarah, who was seriously injured along with her own daughter in the same accident, were determined to salvage some good from their tragedy. They founded a charity in Elizabeth’s name, to help child amputees overseas.

‘My son Rollo arrived three weeks premature in April 2007. It was a slightly difficult labour, and I was exhausted, so we remained in hospital for a few days,’ says Victoria, now 50, who lives in Bungay, Suffolk. ‘The day after the birth, Mummy came to the hospital to visit us. We took a picture of her holding her new grandson – the only time she ever got to cuddle him. Because the following day came the accident that cost her life. She only had two days as Gran Gran to my baby.’

On 25 April 2007, Victoria had been expecting Elizabeth and Sarah at the hospital around 10.30 am. ‘I tidied my room and waited for Mummy, but she never arrived. I was very disappointed. I could hear ambulance sirens outside,’ Victoria recalls. Although she didn’t know it then, one of those ambulances was rushing her niece to the hospital where she was a patient, for emergency surgery.