A devoted dad who tragically lost his beautiful daughter just months after she was diagnosed with cancer will take on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge in her memory.
Amelia Davies was just eight years old when she died in January 2021 following a short battle with neuroblastoma - a rare form of aggressive childhood cancer, Teesside Live reports. Her loving parents have devoted their time to fundraising for Neuroblastoma UK in the hope other families won't suffer the same unimaginable heartbreak.
Now dad Danny Hill, from Darlington, is getting ready to take on his latest fundraising challenge, the Yorkshire Three Peaks which will see him race to complete a 24-mile endurance course in 12 hours.
READ MORE: The Newcastle University medical students helping to save lives in Ukraine with vital first aid
It follows a five-day trek Danny and friends completed along Hadrian's Wall last year, with Amelia's family raising close to the £10,000 mark in her memory.
"It's so other families hopefully won't have to go through what we have," said the 28-year-old.
"It's also about finding better treatments - what my daughter went through was horrible to see. We are trying to fund the charity as much as we can to find better treatments for children who are diagnosed with neuroblastoma and raise some awareness.
"Amelia was so cheeky, proper mouthy, and sarcastic. She was funny to be around, she loved swimming and she'd started to learn how to play the ukulele before she got ill."
The Polam Hall pupil had suffered from stomach pains and constipation in August 2020, with mum Rhiannon Davies contacting the doctors believing at first she may have developed a dietary intolerance. She was referred for scans at Darlington Memorial Hospital and a day later Rhiannon received a call to say they needed to bring Amelia in for further investigation.
But there the family received the devastating news that doctors had discovered an 11cm tumour near Amelia's left kidney. They were transferred to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary where tests found some cancerous cells in the tumour and Amelia was booked in for an operation.
However, further tests showed the cancerous cells had spread to her bone marrow and Amelia was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma on October 31, 2020. The brave little girl started chemotherapy days later and underwent different types of treatment every 10 days.
The treatment seemed to be working, but just before Amelia was due to go home her condition took a turn for the worse and she went into cardiac arrest. Following attempts to revive her, parents Rhiannon and Danny were told Amelia's heart had started working again and she would be taken to the intensive care unit.
But then the unimaginable happened.
Mum Rhiannon said: "We were sat for what felt like forever [and then] the doctors came and told us she had passed away. Even though they had been able to bring her back around her brain had been starved of oxygen for 45 minutes.
"You don't expect you're ever going to hear that."
The family was initially told post-mortem results would take 12 weeks, but, over a year later, they're still waiting for definitive answers.
"We've had a brief answer that Amelia's heart gave in to the treatment but we don't know for definite," dad Danny said. "We should hopefully find out at an inquest in June. It's about all of us coming together to find the final answer, it's not like there is anyone to blame. But it's about getting an answer and giving us some more closure."
On Good Friday, Danny and a team of nine fundraisers will take on the Yorkshire Three Peak Challenge and have already raised more than £600 for Neuroblastoma UK.
"We're trying to keep busy doing charity events. All together I think we've raised close to £10,000 for the charity from all the different events we've had," said Danny.
"We've just hit £500 which is the target but we're trying to exceed that. A few of the lads from work and a couple of friends.
"I'm quite excited about it, I've been going on a few practice walks in the lakes and been going to the gym but I'm probably not as fit as I should be. We're going to try and do our best."
