A GRIEVING family has raised £500,000 for Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in only six months.
Mikey Cecil and his wife Anna, of North End Road, Fulham, set off on their fundraising trail after their 16-month-old daughter, Isla, died from a brain tumour in November.
The couple set up the Isla Cecil Brighter Future Fund designed to raise money to treat children with the rare form of tumour that Isla had.
Last week their efforts culminated in the completion of Mr Cecil’s 1,000-mile bike ride, which took him from Cornwall to Windsor Racecourse, Berkshire, but travelling through every place in the UK that Isla visited before her death.
In a stunning show of support, more than £235,000 was raised at the Windsor track on July 29, nearly doubling the kitty in just a few hours. A gala dinner was attended by 300 and a race was held in Isla’s name, with jockeys wearing armbands in her memory.
Mr Cecil said: “We have doubled the £250,000 target, raising more than £500,000 in only six months. Isla’s legacy should now live on through a new research project, which is great news.”
A partnership between Great Ormond Street and Royal Marsden hospitals and Newcastle University will work on improving treatment of the disease which killed Isla, a form of embryonal central nervous system tumour. Isla could not have surgery because of her age and the sight of the tumour, which had spread.
