THE parents of an 11-year-old girl who died of a brain haemorrhage have set up a charity in her name.
Rob and Katherine Aveyard, of Woodside Avenue, Burnholme, York, were left devastated when their daughter, Bryony’s life was cut short by a rare condition.
Now the couple hope to raise £55,000 to help fund a nurse for a year for children’s charity Wellchild.
They plan to launch their own charity – For the Love of Bryony – Wellchild on May 8, at the David Lloyd Club, in Hull Road. As part of the fundraising effort, Rob and Katherine will be part of a 24-strong team taking part in this year’s Great North Run on Tyneside in September.
Katherine has fundraised for Wellchild before, in 2006 when she and a friend ran the London Marathon for them.
Katherine said: “Had Bryony been fortunate enough to come home with us Wellchild provide the type of help we would have needed. As part of our fundraising we plan to host lots of events and are asking for help from schools, businesses and friends.”
Wellchild helps sick children and their families throughout the UK to manage the consequences of serious illness and complex health conditions through a programme of care, support and research.
After Bryony’s death, the family were told that she had an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), which arises because of abnormal communications, which directly connect arteries to veins, without a capillary bed in between.
Byrony, who loved basketball, was four weeks into her secondary school career at Archbishop Holgate’s CE School in York and was four weeks into the term when in the early hours of September 29 last year, she woke her parents up complaining of a headache.
Her parents drove her straight to York Hospital, but as Rob carried Bryony to the doors in his arms, she stopped breathing.
Bryony was placed on a ventilator and given a brain scan, and doctors discovered she had a brain haemorrhage and the decision was made to transfer her to Leeds General Infirmary for surgery.
Bryony had an operation to remove a blood clot from her brain at Leeds, but she was effectively in a coma, unable to breathe unaided and her parents took the heart-wrenching decision to turn off her life support machine.
Anyone who wants to donate to Bryony’s charity can go on line to www.justgiving.com/bryonyaveyard
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