PARENTS at a primary school want to raise £5,000 to buy a giraffe sculpture as a memorial for a vicar close to their hearts.

A group of parents at Kempsey Primary School want to purchase a giraffe from the Worcester Stands Tall live auction to have in memory of Rev Canon Matthew Baynes who died on Friday, September 28.

Cannon Baynes was the husband of the school's headteacher Bryony Baynes.

Tracey Were, whose son Charlie attends the school said: "He was quite a big part of the school, and he loved giraffes."

"He was a big part of all the schools events and formed relationships with the staff."

A just giving page set up to raise money to buy the giraffe raised £1,500 in the first day it was opened. The goal is to raise £5000.

Mrs Were said: "We are really overwhelmed with the generosity of the local community and the Kempsey Primary School family and friends."

Canon Baynes was diagnosed with cancer 18 months after receiving a kidney from his wife in a living donor transplant. Mr Baynes had suffered from kidney disease for 20 years before the transplant.

Mrs Baynes said: "The poignancy and kindness of the gesture touched me deeply and reduced me to tears!

"We pride ourselves at Kempsey Primary School on being a “family” school – the staff know all the children, the older children look after the younger children, and so on.

"As a staff team as well, we are incredibly supportive of each other and the staff have been outstanding in their love and support for me and for Matthew during the 18 months of his illness and in the past week since his death.

"Matthew was very much part of our school family – he always came and helped at school events, he knew all of the staff personally, he even hosted our end of term staff BBQ in July. He would have loved this idea; I can see him smiling now. "

Mr Baynes was cared for at St Richard's Hospice and spent the last week of his life there.

Mrs Baynes said: "They treated him with such kindness and compassion; they gave him back his dignity and eased not only his pain but his soul. And, most importantly, they allowed us precious time as a family to sit round his bed, to laugh a little, to remember and to tell him how very much we love him and how we will miss him every day for the rest of our lives.

"We would not have had that time without St Richard's."

Worcester Stands Tall is a project in which 30 painted giraffe sculptures were placed around Worcester forming an art trail. The giraffes will be sold at an auction on October 11.

To donate to Kempsey Primary School's effort to buy a Worcester Stands Tall giraffe, visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ptfagiraffeauction