A NEW festival coming to Witney this summer will honour the memory of a 10-year-old boy who died of cancer.

Thousands are expected to flock to St Mary's Church in June for MAD About Witney, which boasts an exciting blend of music, dance, comedy, magic and musical theatre.

The festival has been organised by Joss Searchlight, a charity set up in memory of Joss Parkes, who lived in the town and died in 2011.

His parents, Dianne and Nigel Parkes, set up the charity after his death to raise awareness to other parents and provide emotional and practical support to families in the same situation.

Recently, developer Persimmon donated £1,000 to go towards the charity's performing arts festival.

Mrs Parkes said: “In 2011 my beautiful 10-year-old son Joss was taken away by the cruellest of childhood cancers, DIPG, the most incurable of brain tumours.

"He passed away at the John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital, Oxford, and since the day he died our family has strived to make the lives of families of children with cancer a little bit better."

The bereaved mother talked about the efforts the charity has gone to to ensure the festival is a roaring success.

She continued: “This event is all about raising awareness, and getting the community together.

“We’ve engaged with 54 professional artists to stage demonstrations and workshops to ensure a diverse and fully inclusive event. It is set to bring people together from different backgrounds, encouraging more than 300 children and people with limited opportunities to get involved."

Persimmon’s donation will help to fund the stage, sound engineers and artists.

Pauline Fletcher, sales and marketing director at Persimmon Homes Wessex, said: “When we heard about the event and Joss’s Searchlight we wanted to do what we could to help the cause.

“We are committed to supporting the communities in which we are building, and the Community Champions scheme is just one way we do that."

For more information about the event, which will take place on Saturday, June 16, go to josssearchlight.org.uk