a memorial to Sophie<\/a>, who very sadly passed away on 4th June 2026, aged just three, after an 18-month battle following her diagnosis with Batten Disease (CLN1).<\/p>\n\u201cSophie\u2019s family sponsored \u2018Tigger\u2019 to be situated close to the Winnie the Pooh bench, in memory of their beautiful little girl and because of her love of bouncing in her jumparoo \u2014 making Tigger particularly special to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cInscribed on the bench are the beautiful words: \u2018You\u2019re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Tigger and the bench were skillfully and lovingly created by Chainsaw Creations, to commemorate Sophie and provide a lasting tribute to their beautiful daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor someone to deliberately vandalise this special memorial is simply beyond belief.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The sculpture is in memory of Sophie Mason who passed away earlier this year, aged just three.<\/p>\n
And they added: \u201cTigger is one of many new structures created through \u2018Albie\u2019s Gift\u2019, as part of the regeneration work being carried out by the Culloden Avenue Project.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn inspiring amount of time, hard work, commitment and fundraising has gone into creating this community initiative \u2014 something designed to bring joy to local families and visitors for years to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to everyone who continues to support, contribute to and look after our community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ask everyone to remain vigilant and encourage you to contact us if you have any concerns, queries or witness any suspicious or questionable behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease help us protect the Gruffalo Walk and the special memories it represents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daisy acKenzie said: \u201cIt\u2019s so disheartening to see as I just wanted it to be an area for everyone to enjoy. Each of the sculptures have meaning behind their sponsor so it\u2019s a real shame.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping it may have just been an accident or someone playing too rough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful for Culloden Community Council who have taken charge of the sculptures and are getting it repaired asap.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just ask that people help look out for the sculptures so we can keep it as a special area for all to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The community council post has generated dozens of comments from people angered and saddened by the vandalism.<\/p>\n
Sara Maclennan said: \u201cI\u2019m disgusted by this. We sponsored the Toy Story one further along the avenue in memory of our daughter who also passed away and we have found it to have footprints on the face that makes us think it was being kicked too, why anyone would do this is just beyond me!\u201d<\/p>\n
Alice Gordon said: \u201cAbsolutely enraged that this should happen. Sooooo heartbreaking, especially for Sophie\u2019s family, but also for the community who love to walk along the avenue with family members (grandchildren love it) and with friends too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be so good if the culprits come forward and pay for repairs but somehow I don\u2019t think that would happen, sadly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neil Coulborn said: \u201cIt makes me sick to my stomach that we have these moronic individuals living amongst us. Absolutely no respect to the families that have sponsored these figures in very sad times for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tigger sculpture before the warning tape was removed. Picture: Culloden Community Council Facebook page A grieving mum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,7840,1120,96,445,913,56,54,55,7741],"class_list":["post-744813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-community","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-latest-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-update-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}