2nd December update:

What a great day in Liverpool yesterday! Up to 10,000 Santas took part in the Dash through Liverpool including the gang of 7 from Acton Bridge.

 

We were spurred on by our crazy band of supporters who wielded the biggest and best banner in town. Five of Acton Bridge's finest weaved their way through the masses of slow moving Santas, skipping around the debris of discarded Santa beards and belts, resisting the charms of a 10am pint in the Vauxhall pub, bravely avoiding the distraction of a bare footed (male) runner wearing just a thong and arrived at the finish line in a new village record time of 33 minutes. Bringing up the rear were the injured duo of former professional tennis star Paul Higgins, ably assisted by the very overweight and unfit triathlete Mark Latimer and recently co-opted member of the team Erika.

 

At the time of writing we have raised more than double our target of £1,000 in aid of the Alder Hey Children's Charity and wish to thank everybody who has been kind enough to donate their hard earned money to this wonderful cause. Your support and encouragement has been appreciated by all of us and made an enjoyable event even more worthwhile. Thank you!!

 

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A group of Dads from Acton Bridge in Cheshire are running the Liverpool Santa Dash on Sunday December 1st. In October, on one of the very rare occasions we Dads get to drink beer together in our local pub, the Hazel Pear, we talked about raising some money as a way of giving something back to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. Many people have been touched by the generosity of their care and we have been affected close to home this last year as one of our own, Skye Higgins and her family, spent so much time there. Below, Skye's father, Paul, tells Skye's story:

 

Skye lived with love, fun and courage from April 30th 2008 to August 31 2013.

Skye was diagnosed in May 2012 with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia; notwithstanding the challenges of her treatment she was a happy, loving, polite little girl throughout.

Despite early knowledge that we would lose Skye the team at Alder Hey in Liverpool worked tirelessly to ensure she survived for long enough to meet her new born sister Clover who was born on June 25th this year. During the brief time that they knew each other Skye and Clover forged the beginnings of a relationship before Skye sadly passed away, without pain or fear and surrounded by the love of her parents who were with her when she left us.

Skye is deeply missed by us all, not least by her three sisters Eve, Willow and Clover.

Skye touched all who knew her and we had her for longer than we had expected thanks to the magnificent work of the team at Alder Hey..... they gave us one more summer with our beautiful little girl. Who can put a price on that ?

In the interests of funding further research to help children like Skye survive, please give what you can.

 

Skye’s the limit.

 

Paul Higgins

Skye’s Father

 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.