Get behind fundraiser in memory of brave Leeds youngster

Skye Sutcliffe, from Middleton, died in 2015 following a long battle with a rare combination of blood cancers.

Today her family has called on people in Leeds to help celebrate the life of the two-year-old, by running for charity in Skye’s memory.

The Running for Skye 2018 fundraiser, in Middleton Park next month, will be the third annual charity race organised by Skye’s family.

Her mum, Amie Mills, told the YEP: “We wanted just to keep the memory alive and to do things that still bring her into our life.

“I would say to people just come down to the fundraiser, have fun and think about the ‘what ifs’, in a sense.

“Skye was always smiling, she was overcome by happiness rather than sadness.”

The toddler’s tragic death in December 2015 came just months after doctors declared her cancer-free in June that year, having fought with both the acute lymphoblastic and myeloid leukaemia cancers.

By September, her family was given the heartbreaking news that both strains of the disease had returned.

Skye was first diagnosed with leukaemia when she was just 20 weeks old, and her battle with the disease led her family to raise more than £17,000 for the Leeds General Infirmary-based Candlelighters and Delete Blood Cancer UK charities by the end of 2015.

Their fundraising has continued and around Christmas last year, Ms Mills helped raise more than £3,500 through a variety of fundraisers. She also donated a further £1,000 to pay for a bathroom on a hospital ward to be refurbished.

“Candlelighters do so much for the families but they don’t get funding from anywhere else really other than donations,” Ms Mills, 27, 
said.

“There is always someone there to chat to and they are involved, in the sense of making everyone feel comfortable and making it more normal.”

Skye left behind two brothers – Riley, eight, and Harvey, seven.

During her battle with illness, mum Amie and dad Damion Sutcliffe also urged people to sign the bone marrow register.

And her brave brother Harvey, who was just three, donated bone marrow to Skye after doctors found the youngster was a perfect match for his sister.

“They just get on now, they know the ins and outs of the situation,” Ms Mills said of Skye’s brothers.

“They have never been hidden from anything.

“They still talk about her and they watch TV programmes that Skye watched, so it’s still fresh for them.”

Following her death, her mum and grandmother opened a new soft play business in Allerton Bywater – named Skye Pie’s Soft Play – in memory of Skye.

At last year’s Running for Skye event, about 300 people helped raise more than £2,000 for charity.

This year’s fundraiser in her memory takes place at Middleton Park on Sunday, February 11.

Participants can sign up for the event from 10.30am, ahead of the race start at 11.15am.

For more information, or to sign up, search ‘Running for Skye 2018’ on www.skiddle.com.