ACCIDENT VICTIM: David Shorrock, who was awarded a post-humous medal for his achieve-ments with the army cadets. The medal went missing but the cadet chief in Lanca-shire has pledged to replace it
A MILITARY medal belonging to a teenage army cadet who died in a bike accident is to be replaced - 18 years after it went missing.
David Shorrock, from Darwen, was 14 when he was killed riding pillion on a motorbike in July 1990.
As a member of an Army Cadets regiment in Blackburn, he was given a military funeral and a posthumous medal for his achievements.
But the medal was taken by a man who promised his mum he would make a headstone for David, saying that it could be implanted into the stonework, and it was never returned.
David's mother, Sue, 54, of Tudor Close, is desperate to get the medal back before she moves to Plymouth.
On reading her appeal in the Lancashire Telegraph, Major Mick Baddeley, Cadet Executive Officer of the Lancashire Army Cadet Force, said: "We would very much like to help.
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"I suspect that after 18 years the original medal will not be found, so we would like to replace it and present it as his mother wishes.
"There are three detachments in Blackburn so we will need to find out which one he attended, and I will have to speak to Mrs Shorrock about the type of medal."
Mrs Shorrock said she was pleased by the gesture from Major Baddeley and would be taking him up on the offer, but wanted to keep the presentation low-key.
She said: "This is a healing journey and that will be it completed here - this mother hen will be able to fly the nest."
David was buried in his uniform at Darwen Cem-etery after a service at St Joseph's RC Church and his coffin was carried into the church by the members of his regiment.
Mrs Shorrock described the medal as round, made out of metal, and in a box with David's name on it.
Solicitors were called in to find the medal, but they have not been able to find it despite their recruiting bailiffs.
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