Holiday prize delight for couple

Sean and Tracey Blackmore will jet off on the holiday of a lifetime after winning top prize in the Shropshire Star's Take off on a Dream Come True competition.

The couple, from Alexandra Road in Shrewsbury, were chosen from more than 200 entries for a trip to a dream destination, flying from Birmingham Airport.

They have booked themselves on an all-inclusive package to the Caribbean island of Jamaica.

Tracey was nominated by her husband of 13 years, Sean, who said she deserved a treat after enduring a catalogue of "pain and heartbreak" over the past decade. She had no idea he had put forward her name.

Sean's letter told how the couple endured a series of tragedies over a ten-year period, beginning when they had to cancel a special 30th birthday holiday when Tracey's father was diagnosed with meningitis.

Four years later, after fertility treatment, Tracey became pregnant, but her daughter Grace was stillborn in 1999. It happened again in 2001 when she gave birth to a second stillborn child, Olivia.

Another tragedy struck in 2004 when Tracey gave birth to a son, William, who arrived by emergency Caesarean section, but also died.

By this time the couple did have a healthy son, Joshua, who is six, and have since expanded their family with a daughter, Scarlett, two. Both children will be joining the couple on the Jamaica trip.

The family's hopes of a 40th birthday celebration were halted when Tracey's father was struck down with terminal cancer. Tracey spent the eve of her milestone birthday by his bedside, and the next nine months absorbed in her father's care.

Sean said: "I feel Tracey deserves the prize due to the courage, strength and determination she has displayed in the light of so much sadness during a catalogue of events.

"When I see the pain and heartbreak she has endured there is nothing I would like more than to give her the relaxation and pampering of a Caribbean holiday."

By Carl Jones