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NewsCommunityTragic teen trying to raise £1K for dad's headstone

Tragic teen trying to raise £1K for dad’s headstone

A HEARTBROKEN teenager who lost one brother to illness, another brother following child cruelty and her father to a rare medical condition is trying to scrape together money for her dad’s headstone.

Stephanie Gray was just six-years-old when her baby brother died of a heart defect two days after being born.

Her other brother, John, died aged 21 months after suffering 200 injuries while in the care of her mum and new partner, both of whom were jailed for child cruelty.

Steph, now 17, recently lost her taxi driver dad after he developed a rare condition that caused inflammation in the blood vessels and damage to his organs.

Dean Gray, from Oakley, Fife, was just 45 when he passed away after suffering a heart attack and renal failure in September last year.

Steph is trying to raise £1,000 in memory of her tragic father so he can have a headstone next to his two sons.

Steph is now just £400 off her target
Steph is now just £400 off her target

Dean suffered a brutal attack in 2010 – which left him requiring two operations on his brain – and may ultimately have lead to his death.

The assault took place as he made a drop-off in his taxi in Kelty, leaving him “covered head to toe in blood” and resulting in two brain bleeds which required operations.

He then began to get headaches and developed a form of vasculitis – a rare condition that leads to blood vessels narrowing.

It led to sepsis, and almost blood poisoning, and he had to undergo regular dialysis to cleanse his system.

Unfortunately, he succumbed to the condition and passed away at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy in September last year.

Steph is now desperate to have a stone to mark where he is buried in Douglas Bank Cemetery in Dunfermline.

She said: “It sounds silly but I got sent home from work ill and when I’m ill I just want my dad, he’s the only person that’s always been there for me.

Steph with her dad, Dean
Steph with her dad, Dean

“So I went to see him but it’s just grass and it made me upset thinking about people walking past and not knowing he’s there.

“I wanted to do something for him. It would mean the world to me. It’s not what he would have wanted for his 46th birthday on Sunday but he’d appreciate it.”

She added: “My little brothers are there and they’ve got a headstone, people know they’re there. It’s a really nice place, it’s like he’s looking over the boys.”

Steph set up a Go Fund Me page in a bid to raise enough cash for a headstone, and donations have already passed the £600 mark – just £400 off her target.

Before his death, Dean had already endured years of pain after his son, John, died in 2003 while in the care of his estranged wife and her boyfriend.

Lorna Gray and Jim McEwan were both sentenced to five years in jail for child cruelty, after originally being charged with culpable homicide.

The toddler sustained more than 200 injuries on 92 different parts of his body but there was no evidence Gray or McEwan had hit the child.

He had four fractured ribs and a fractured arm, and it is believed a blow to the abdomen ruptured his liver – killing him almost instantly.

The pair, who met in an online chatroom, were put behind bars for five years – but Lorna was freed after serving just three.

Click here to donate to Steph’s page.

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