THE family of an "extraordinary" young girl who died last year after a battle with illness have set up a charity in her memory - to support families facing similar heartache.
Millie Wright, of Poppleton, York, passed away in August last year, aged just 13. She had been suffering from an underlying auto-immune health condition, and fell ill in March 2021.
Before her death, Millie - described by her family as “inspirational and courageous” - was diagnosed with aplastic aneamia, a complication of acute hepatitis and acute liver failure.
And now Millie’s family are setting up a new charity in her honour, called The Millie Wright Children’s Charity, to help families in a similar situation.
Millie’s mum, Ceri, said: “The purpose of our charity is to support children and families being treated at Leeds Children’s Hospital diagnosed with life threatening non-malignant liver, renal and haematological conditions.
“Millie was an inclusive, kind and loving child. She would want every child and their families to have the same support.”
Ceri said the family already have a “great model” to work from as they received support from the Candlelighters Trust during Millie’s treatment on the oncology ward in Leeds.
The charity will address financial issues of supporting children in hospital, such as being unable to work. It will make grants available to families to assist them with some of the financial impacts and to signpost them to other sources of bereavement support if required.
Dr Beki James, consultant paediatric haematologist at Leeds Children’s Hospital, said: “I first met Millie in May 2021 - she was an extraordinary young person.
“We fully support her family in the creation of this charity which aims to support all children with life-threatening diagnoses as they face unimaginable challenges, to walk alongside their families and to advocate for them.”
As well as supporting others, the family also hope that the charity will help to raise awareness of aplastic anaemia - and they are searching for a patron to help them do this.
“We are looking for a patron who is a public character and sympathetic to our cause. Them or their family may have experienced a life-threatening haematological, liver or renal condition.”
Today (March 4) is Aplastic Anaemia Day - and Ceri said they would like to raise awareness of the “cruel and devastating” disease.
With aplastic anaemia, the special cells inside the bone marrow do not work properly. Normally, these special cells make all the different blood cells and send them out into the blood. If they are not making enough blood cells then the person will be tired, pale, at increased risk of bruising or bleeding and at risk of infections.
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