A GRIEVING mum was devastated to learn today that her little girl's brain has been destroyed in the nationwide organs retention scandal.

Tracey Drury, 36, spent months preparing herself to bury the brain at Fulford cemetery alongside the remains of her daughter, Shelley, four.

But Tracey, of Bramham Grove, Chapelfields, has now received a letter from York Health Services NHS Trust informing her that the organ has been cremated by Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust.

Shelley died in York District Hospital 12 years ago after a series of epileptic fits. She had a post-mortem examination at YDH and then her brain was sent to Leeds for further tests.

Although she knew Shelley's brain was removed she said she did not imagine it could never be reunited with her body.

"They could have done anything with her brain - just discarded it. I'm too numb for words."

Tracey and her 18-year-old son, Dean, had planned a burial. She is now seeking compensation. "I wanted to bury my daughter whole and now they've told me I've got nothing.

"I feel empty when I go to her grave at the moment because I know she's not complete and never can be."

Tracey's nightmare began when the Alder Hey report found that children who had died at the Liverpool hospital had been stripped of their organs without their parents' knowledge or consent.

A spokesman for the Leeds Trust said destroying organs had been common practice

Updated: 15:27 Wednesday, August 08, 2001