I met Christian Lees on Twitter. I liked and retweeted a video of his son Jace, an up and coming Singer/Songwriter from Salford. I was blown away by this young mans talent. Jace is just 17. His passion for music is second to none.

I asked Christian if he would consider writing a piece for this new project. He very kindly agreed, so brace yourselves and grab a couple of tissues. This heart wrenching but, also warming story shows the love Chris & his beautiful childhood sweetheart wife, Lorna, have for these children.  Enjoy x

Hi my name is Christian Lees. I am a 49 year old man who lives in the beautiful sunny City Of Salford approximately 2 miles from the centre of Manchester. I am very happily married to my beautiful wife Lorna who I met at primary school at the ripe old age of 9 years old and she was 10. We went through high school together as boyfriend and girlfriend and I still haven’t been able to shake her off, to the point in May 2002 she eventually got a wedding ring on my finger (hope she doesn’t read this). Anyway, we have two grown up daughters, Rebecca 28 and Jessica 24. Rebecca is married to Liam and they have three amazing children. Olivia 6, George 5 and Penny 6 months. Jessica is engaged to be married to Joe and they have a beautiful daughter Harlia at 5 months old. Rewind to roughly 2011 when Rebecca would have been approximately 19 and Jessica 14 going on 15. Lorna and myself just started tasting the life on our own without children, going to the Lake District at the drop of a hat for a night or two. Going to restaurants just the two of us enjoying beer and wine and not having to worry about being home for the girls. Don’t get me wrong we love spending time with our girls and this is all we really ever knew, but then all of a sudden we was like a young dating couple again and it felt really good and free. Meanwhile, back to my crazy normal family life I have a younger called Michael who is 11 years younger than me. Michael had the same upbringing as me and my two sisters but for reasons not really known to us he got caught up in alcohol and drugs from an early age. Michaels drug use lead to him becoming very mentally poorly and to this day is effecting the family greatly. My love for my brother is very difficult to explain. On one hand I can never forgive what he has put my beautiful parents through and the pain and eternal hurt that drug taking he has done over the years has done to their health and wellbeing and how much he has hurt his Children, sisters, Lorna and me and his family who have shown him nothing but love. On the other hand he is my little blonde haired stunningly beautiful baby brother who when he was born I swore id protect him from everything and everyone. Unfortunately I couldn’t protect him from himself. Deep down our Mike has an heart of gold and he isn’t a bad lad and I truly believe that. He’s my brother and I love him so much but he’s wrecked this family. Michael has two sons aged 21 and 18 from other relationships and also a daughter aged 12 named MIKA. So this brings me on to what I really wanted to write about. It was in 2011 that Lorna’s and my life changed forever. Michael was in a relationship with a young lady who had a lovely little lad called Jace who was about 2 maybe 3 years old and Michael looked after Jace like his own son. A few years down the line and Jace’s mum gave birth to a very premature little girl. She gave birth at 24 weeks and was told that the baby was so premature that the chances of survival was very very unlikely. Both parents were broken. That little girl fought her way into this world and survived against all the odds and after being read the last rites she pulled herself through (What a Girl). That little fighter was given the beautiful name of MIKA. The Manchester Evening News done a story for their newspaper with the heading “Miracle Baby” Mika Lees is a miracle baby girl, a story she very proudly tells people today haha and why not. A little Salford fighter she really is with a true honest beautiful heart and soul of gold. God placed something truly special in that little girls heart he really did. Things didn’t go too well for Michael and his partner. Social services got involved and the inevitable happened and the children got taken into care. This broke our hearts wide open. These two children didn’t deserve this, they were only babies. Jace was only about 6 and Mika 18 months old. My family was broke again and we didn’t know what to do. Mika was collected from my parents house with Lorna being there to be put through the heartache of the social workers taking Mika away. I’m much more of a coward and stayed at work until they had been because I’m not sure of my actions if they tried to take that little girl from my arms. Jace was picked up from school and put into a social workers car. That will leave a scar on that lad for the rest of his life (fuckers). These two innocent kids got took into rest bite foster care. Social services closed ranks and we couldn’t find anything out for what seem an eternity. Lorna and myself without hesitation put in for full custody of the children but was told we could foster Mika because she was my niece but but we could not put in for custody of Jace as he was not blood related. This really upset us both enormously as we wanted both Jace and Mika to remain together as Brother and Sister. They were both placed into rest bite care for 18 months while we went ahead in our plea for custody of Mika. On every visit we had from social services they tore us apart in every way possible including Bank information, health checks going through our brown bin to make sure that what we told them our alcohol intake was was correct. I fully understand that they must be sure that people need to be fully vetted if children are involved but it is very frustrating when it happens to you and all you want to do is bring two children up and give them love and safety. They can never be too careful though and most of the time time they do a good job. On each visit from them we always asked can we take Jace and was told every visit NO but we kept asking anyway. Nine months have now gone by and we are told that things are getting finalised for Mika to come and live with us. We are so excited but so low because she is being taken away from the closest person she’s ever known, her big brother Jace. Very bitter sweet feeling inside I remember feeling. What’s going to happen to that little boy who’s asked for none of this shit to happen to him and his little sister. Fucking bullshit system that’s fucking wrecking childrens lives. We wasn’t happy about Jace being left stuck in the system and wanted answers. Not blood related, go and fuck right off you bunch of silly fuckers playing God to a 7 year olds life here just because the system says so..Bollocks. On the phone to the jobs worth lot and told them we want a meeting this time. They came up with a load of shit again blah blah blah. Then after a visit we asked again, what will happen to Jace? They told us he would be put up for adoption and that they would have no trouble in finding him adoptive parents. We will foster Jace we told them like we did from day one. Oh would you be willing to do this they asked us? So it took us 9 months to get to a stage where Mika would be ready to come and live with us, now the process starts again and its 18 months before we finally get Jace and Mika to come and live with us. It was a very difficult time for all of us. The kids are doing amazing now. Jace is now 17 and is at collage doing music. He’s a Singer/Songwriter and a brilliant Guitarist who writes and performs all his own songs. He turning into a wonderful young man with a fantastic outlook on life. Please check him out on Twitter: Jacecampbell03 Instagram: Jacecampbelloffical Youtube: Jacecampbelloffical

Mika is now 12 and is at high school and is a brilliant and imaginative young lady. She is really into Art and making things. She does some brilliant drawings and makes some brilliant sculptures from clay of little animals. She’s a massive Ariana Grande fan and talks about her all the time. I am a bias Dad but Mika is truly blessed with a pure heart. She see’s the good in everything and wouldn’t hurt anyone or anything. She is now a Vegetarian because she hates the thought of any living thing being hurt. She really is a “ Miracle Baby” and as shown me what the real meaning of “Fighting” really means. She as fought for the right to be in this world from 24 weeks old, now if that’s not a Fighter I don’t know what is. A lot of us piss and moan about things but I never hear negative things coming from this tiny Atom. What a girl she really is.

The Kids still have contact with their Mum on a regular basis and everything is good with them.

That’s it from me hope you found it interesting, and its just a peek into my world.

Thanks so much and take care. Chris x