Jemma is streets ahead! (From Penarth Times)

Jemma is streets ahead!

8:22am Monday 7th April 2008

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A YOUNG disabled child in Texas - who left Penarth with her family last year - is donating a prize of books worth £200 to her former school after being awarded first prize in the Under-16 section of the Write Up Your Street competition in London today.

Ten-year-old Jemma Leech lived in Plymouth Road, Penarth, and attended Palmerston Primary School in Barry, until she moved to Houston in Texas with her family last year.

Jemma's former English teacher at Palmerston Primary, Melody Jones, and best friend, Megan Gray, went to the prize-giving ceremony in London's Docklands to accept the prize on Jemma's behalf.

Because she is severely physically disabled with cerebral palsy, Jemma uses a computerised keyboard to communicate, but she has already been hailed as a gifted writer and poet.

The first writing competition she won was the Penarth Times' Christmas Story competition in 2005.

And in this competition, she beat more than 1,600 other children to the Under 16s first prize, even though she was among the youngest to enter. Jemma's entry was an evocative description of a wet Christmas Day in Brockwell Park in South London, near the home where she was born.

Jemma won a prize of around £400 in book tokens for herself, and for her school another £400 of book tokens from London's famous Foyles bookshop.

She has asked the organisers to split the school's prize between Palmerston Primary and her current school, Mark Twain Elementary in Houston.

One of the judges said of her work: "Jemma Leech's winning entry - A Hawarden Grove Christmas - stunned us all with its imagery, craft, and finesse. The fact that Jemma is just 10 years old makes her talent burn even more brightly.

"It is the one entry which inspired a unanimous decision - winner! We are all confident that Jemma has a successful career as a writer ahead of her."

The competition was organised by development agency, Spread the Word, to create a literary map of London, and entries had to include the name of a London street in the title.

All the entries will be posted on a new website - www.cityofsharedstories.org.uk - and visitors to the site will be able to tour a map of London and read the entries by clicking on certain streets and landmarks.

Although Jemma was not able to attend the ceremony on Saturday in person, a short film was shown in which she gave her acceptance speech.

It shows her sitting alongside the lifelike statue of Mark Twain in front of her Houston school.

In the film, Jemma pays tribute to Melody Jones, who taught her English at Palmerston for three years, and who played an influential role in developing Jemma's literary knowledge and appreciation.

Jemma said that she wanted to acknowledge Mrs Jones as an "extraordinary teacher".

Using the voice of her computerised communicator to read the speech on the film, Jemma said: "Mrs Jones found me, aged seven, being spoon-fed a diet of ABCs and 123s.

"She saw the advanced reader and writer in me and gave me the gift of her knowledge, her wisdom and her belief.

"She gave me Austen, Priestley and Shakespeare, and challenged me to better them. She will always remain my hero, and I am so touched that she is there with you today in my place."

Jemma's winning entry was originally written as part of a tribute to Dylan Thomas which Jemma wrote just before she left Wales - and was published in the Penarth Times.

She wrote A Child's Christmas ' using Thomas' rhythmic poetic prose style, and Jemma's family sent an illustrated copy of it to all their friends and family with the change of address card when they moved to Houston.

The illustrations were drawn by Penarth-based artist, Samantha Johnson.

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