A HARD-hitting anti-speeding campaign featuring young Farnworth hit-and-run victim Tracy Kennedy has struck a poignant chord with a couple hit by tragedy 24 years ago.

Six-year-old Tracy was killed as she pushed her four-year-old sister, Sonia, out of the way of a speeding van outside their home in Central Avenue - and she is one of six real victims featured in the shock campaign.

She will be seen in the TV and poster campaign laughing and smiling, in footage taken in a family video.

The message will be: "Kill Your Speed...Not A Child".Tracy's parents, Val and Ron, gave the go-ahead for the footage to be used.

Their bravery, featured on TV programme 999 at the weekend, touched the hearts of millions - but particularly moved a couple who live just a few streets away from them.

John and June Hall, of Coniston Avenue, Farnworth, lost their son, Anthony, in a road accident almost 25 years ago, but the pain is still as great as the day the tragedy happened. Anthony was only 11 years old when he was knocked from his bike by a car travelling in the opposite direction during a summer day when visibility was poor.

Mrs Hall said: "We wanted to express our total admiration for Ron, Val and Sonia Kennedy for their excellent account of the day their beautiful daughter and sister Tracy was so cruelly taken from them.

"They were so brave and we as a family would like them to have our love and support for anything to do with the campaign to 'Kill Your Speed...Not A Child'.

"Our son was killed in a road accident aged 11 some 24 years ago, but it seems like yesterday to us. We know how they are feeling.

"They still have a long way to go, but with Friends Group for Bereaved Parents they will slowly find the strength to bear this terrible pain and fight to ensure that no other family should have to bear this self-same pain.

"I just want to help get the message of the campaign across to the public out there.

"People need to stop and think of what damage is done by just one accident, how many lives it touches - not just close family, but friends, neighbours, schoolfriends, extended family and the community as a whole.

"At the time when it happened I could not even face the thought of the funeral. I left it to others to decide and Anthony was cremated. Now I wish I had buried him and at least there would be something for me to go and see.

"We did put a plaque up in his name in the cemetery to be there for 25 years - now 25 years is almost gone. It seems like only yesterday.

"The pain is something that never leaves you, but what you do get with time is the strength to carry on. But the memory never dies. The bike Anthony was on at the time of the accident had been a present from the previous Christmas.

"When Christmas came the year after I went to pieces and suffered a nervous breakdown.

"It was the thought of the two other children I had at home that gave me the strength to continue, but it took me five years before I felt I could step outside and hold up my head.

"There are groups that help, particularly the Compassionate Friends, but you have to pay quite some price before you can join - the life of your child.

"It was 17 years before I even knew about the Friends, but it is a group that lets you laugh and cry - they listen.

"As a mother you feel you have to be strong for everyone else, yet you are the one going through it the most.

"The anti-speeding campaign is one that is very close to my heart, particularly if it can prevent other families going through what we and the Kennedy family have. I wouldn't wish that experience on anybody.

"All parents and grandparents should save footage of the programme on which the Kennedy family and the campaign were featured 'lest we forget'."

The £1.7 million campaign was launched this week by Transport Minister Steven Norris, ironically almost two years to the day of the accident in which Tracy was killed.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.