IT HAS been almost a year since loving father and husband Ian Carrington passed away and his infectious laugh is still badly missed.

But he lives on in the drawings, poems, memory box and sand memory jar created by his ten-year-old daughter Zoe, with the help of Weldmar Hospicecare Trust children’s worker Jill Cooley.

Ian’s wife Georgie, 41, said Zoe was the spitting image of her dad at the same age, while his intelligence and humour could be seen in her older step-children Duncan and Jo.

Georgie, of Milborne St Andrew, near Dorchester said: “I married someone with the most amazing sense of humour, who just made me laugh and laugh.

“I just miss that terribly.

“He could be a very caring person to family and friends and he loved his children.”

She added: “He was an amazingly intelligent person and it’s just sad that that his knowledge of electronics has gone.

“I hope it comes out in his children.

“His sense of humour and intelligence is definitely coming out in them.”

Puddletown Middle School pupil Zoe has been helped by children’s worker Jill since the end of last April when her dad passed away at Dorset County Hospital.

Toymaker Ian, 56, had made two full recoveries from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, when he was taken into the intensive care unit with breathing difficulties in March 2008.

He died 41 days later and Georgie said it was ‘so heartbreaking’.

She said: “He still had his sense of humour – you could see it in his eyes although he couldn’t speak.

“He still had his spark up until two days before he died.”

Ian’s children Duncan, 28, and Jo, 32, came down from Essex to be with their dad and Georgie and Zoe visited the hospital every day.

Georgie said: “It’s the worst thing you could ever face to be honest – especially because Zoe was nine and I was thinking ‘Oh my God, how am I going to cope?’”

A Weldmar nurse at the hospice told Georgie about the adult and children’s bereavement service the charity could provide – and it proved to be a lifeline.

Zoe said: “When my dad died they said there’s people you can talk to basically.

“Mum told me to go because I was really upset.

“It’s helped me to be a bit more confident around my friends when they talk about my dad and stuff.

“And I can talk to more people if they ask how I feel.”

She added: “I like doing all the creative activities.”

In Zoe’s memory jar the ‘key aspects of daddy’ include yellow sand for his humour and jokes, red sand for cinema trips and holidays, blue for him taking her to school every day and green for fairs and shows.

The navy-coloured sand marks the St Christopher necklace Ian always wore.

A poem also recalls Ian’s love of toy making, a business for which Zoe was the chief tester.

Zoe was a pupil at Milborne First School when Ian passed away, and Georgie praised the school’s staff, parents and neighbours as ‘amazing’.

Their friends in Weymouth and Dorchester also provided ‘an enormous amount of support’.

Georgie said: “It just came from nowhere – we didn’t ask for help.

“It was the same with Weldmar, they offered to help and I don’t know how I could have coped without them.

“Jill’s been amazing in guiding me in how to deal with a child who has lost a parent and dealing with the issues of cancer and what it can do to a family.”

She added: “At the end of the day we can’t be frightened by it, it happens, we’ve got to cope with it just as other families do all over the world.

“We’re just grateful we’ve had Weldmar there to support us.

“Life would’ve been a lot more difficult if we didn’t have Jill.”

How you can give

THE Dorset Echo and the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust have joined forces for our Show Them You Care campaign.

We’ve already raised £1,945 since the appeal was launched on February 28 but there’s a long way to go and we need your help to hit the £60,000 target needed to pay for a community nurse for a year. We want pubs, businesses and individuals to hold fundraising events or to show their support with individual donations on our specially set up Just Giving webpage.

You can also donate funds from events already organised. The £60,000 will be used to fund a nurse for a year and pay for all of their support and expenses. Crucially, it would mean even more patients and their families receiving all the support they need, when they need it most. Now it is time to show you care.

Donate on the website listed below or send donations in by post. Go online to justgiving.com/weldmarnurse Send cheques payable to ‘The Weldmar Hospicecare Trust’ to the Dorset Echo offices at Fleet House, Hampshire Road, Weymouth, DT4 9XD.

We also want to hear your stories of how Weldmar has helped you and your family, and why you think people should support this worthy charity. Call Dorset Echo Weldmar campaign reporter Laura Kitching on 01305 830984.