A young boy will get to go on the holiday of a lifetime - thanks to This Is Essex partner paper the Evening Gazette.
Craig Tomlinson, 12, lost his mother Sharon Wilson, 36, in a tragic car accident in December.
He went to live with Brenda Watts, her husband Trevor and 13-year-old son Adam at their home in Drake Gardens, Braintree.
The Watts family had already booked a March holiday to California and they decided to book an extra ticket for Craig.
But when Mrs Watts tried to get Craig a passport, she came up against a wall of red tape.
The passport office refused to give Craig a passport without the signature of his father Adam Tomlinson who had automatically became Craig's legal guardian after his mother's death.
Craig did not see his father often and Mrs Watts was unable to track him down - knowing only he lived somewhere in the north of England.
But after the Gazette highlighted Mrs Watts' plight, the fight to get Craig a passport began to move more swiftly.
After the story appeared a man wrote to Craig's grandmother detailing previous addresses of Craig's father. Contact was made with Mr Tomlinson who filled out the passport application.
Brenda Watts said: "The final decision had to be made by supervisors within the passport office and they have now issued Craig with his passport."
Craig, formerly Jamnitzky, has now legally reverted to his birth name Tomlinson, and Brenda and Trevor Watts are now applying for a residential order which would make them Craig's legal guardians.
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