A good colour palette always helps to inspire me when creating a new character too and when it came to designing SuperDaisy, the pink wig was obviously a great place to start. I wanted to incorporate the purple and gold colours from the Little Princess Trust branding-as SuperDaisy would be sitting alongside them at some point. Inspired by a true story, SuperDaisy tells the tale of a little girl undergoing cancer treatment. Told in rhyme, Daisy lets her imagination run wild as she dresses up in fancy dress, coming to the rescue in different and exciting scenarios. In her superhero disguise, Daisy is able to shake off her worries about being unwell and embrace a freer world - and become the superhero that she really is.

Whole Class Reading resources and planning for Year 1 in a zip file based on Kes Gray’s ‘Super Daisy’ book, focusing on retrieval, inference and prediction. Established in 2006, The Little Princess Trust has donated over 12,000 wigs to child cancer sufferers and raised over GBP15 million for child cancer research. The Little Princess Trust is the only charity like it operating in the UK. All profits from the sale of SuperDaisy go to The Little Princess Trust. But SuperDaisy took longer than I expected to finish. Call me superstitious but it was simply impossible to write an ending before knowing how Daisy’s real-life story would develop. Two years from diagnosis, Daisy was on a firm footing having responded well to chemotherapy. I shared the completed text with the Little Princess Trust. Could this story be genuinely helpful for children and families facing the devastation of childhood cancer? SuperDaisy was born of a desire to do something helpful in a time of despair, to provide a story of hope for children like Daisy and a resource for all young children grappling with the reality of serious illness. I wanted to create a story that provided parents and carers with a way in and out of challenging conversations about childhood cancer, emphasising the extraordinary strength of character discovered by children facing this ordeal.I usually draw a lot of animals, so I sat that evening and drew a little girl swinging from a tree with long flowing pink hair. It wasn’t until a few months later, when Rebecca and I had the most wonderful first call, that she mentioned the illustration and had thought that I’d read the story! I'd had no idea SuperDaisy wore a pink wig at that stage and it felt as if a sort of magic energy was steering the illustrations from there on in. Creating SuperDaisy’s look was my first challenge. Rebecca’s story was clear, this character is strength, hope, kindness, courage, confidence, love, magic and more, all rolled into one and I wanted her to radiate this! Daisy had to be able to take the reader on this often difficult journey, leading them through the challenges sensitively and then smoothly swooping into uplifting scenes. Her expressions needed to be open and readable, so that children of all ages were able to engage with her and understand what emotions she was feeling at each stage of the story. I often pull many faces while drawing (yes alone at my desk - I look crazy!) and love to observe my little one and her friends for inspiration. That first visit to LPT was overwhelming. It is a charity built on an unfaltering foundation - Wendy and Simon’s unconditional, enduring love for their daughter, Hannah. The power of that driving force is the life blood of the charity, permeating everything that they do. You feel it when you are there and it stays with you. Seeing the boxes of donated ponytails and recognising that every ponytail has a story – people don’t cut of their hair and donate it without reason – left me literally weak at the knees. It was all top secret to begin with. All I knew was there was a story written by a fantastic debut author, inspired by a real little girl and her heroic battle with cancer.

Gently and sympathetically told, this is an inspiring story perfect for pre-schoolers encountering illness for the first time.Yes, was the answer. Yes, the story would be helpful, not only for children with cancer and their families but also for healthy children confronted with the reality of cancer. And there was no book like it out there.

Fun was a very important factor for me. I knew this book was going to be in the hands of real life little superheroes and I wanted to reinforce Rebecca’s story and help to create that wonderful escapism and adventure a picture book can bring. The zoo scene was especially enjoyable to illustrate. I want the little readers to return to this book again and again and to spot new things - so busy scenes like this are just perfect for adding in all those little details! When HarperCollins approached me to illustrate a book in conjunction with the Little Princess Trust, I just had to know more!