Rae was born on 20th July 2016, a healthy 6lb 14oz beautiful little girl with tufts of blonde hair. Apart from colic and reflux was healthy and hitting her milestones. Rae had bronchitis in October 2016 and a Viral rash in November 2016. On Christmas Eve December 2016 Rae was pale, not drinking a lot of milk, vomiting and constipated. Rae also had some mottling of the skin and a viral rash. We kept an eye on Rae over the next few days and decided when the doctors opened after the Christmas period we would take her if she hadn’t improved. The night of the 27th December Rae was very unsettled and cried on and off throughout the night and whimpered in her sleep.

The next morning we took her straight to our GP. The GP was very thorough and asked us to to worry but to go straight to Charlie’s Day unit as our local hospital in Basingstoke which is the children’s ward. Rae was taken straight there and seen immediately. The doctor could feel Rae’s spleen on examination and was concerned. Rae had blood taken. Within 4 hours of arriving at Basingstoke hospital we were taken to a room where we were told our tiny 5 month old baby had Leukaemia. They explained that Rae was very poorly and needed a blood transfusion and platelets and would be transferred to Southampton hospital at 6am the following morning. We were absolutely devastated.

Once at Southampton Rae was taken to surgery and had a central line fitted, bone marrow aspiration and intrathecal Chemotherapy. Rae was then transferred to Piam Brown Ward which is the children’s oncology ward. Rae was officially diagnosed with Infant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (IALL). Rae was to have 5 rounds of Chemotherapy as an inpatient each timescale of the rounds varied from 4 weeks to 6 weeks. Rae was in an inpatient for a total of 7 months. We met the most wonderful children and parents in this time and shared our worries, pain and even moments if joy together.

The consultants at Southampton got Rae cancer free by February 2017 but she had to continue the protocol which was 2 and half years. Rae was discharged in July 2017 and was on maintenance Chemotherapy at home. Rae started to improve and hit milestones like walking. Rae had lifelong, life limiting side effects from her Chemotherapy. And continued to be in and out of hospital with infections. In 2018 Rae became very unwell and was admitted to hospital after losing 20% body weight and all mobility. Rae was placed on TPN (Total Parental Nutrition) this was given through her central line for 24 hours. We spent another 8 weeks in hospital. Rae was discharged and kept a close eye on. A few months later Rae was back in and on TPN and this time we were trained to administer the TPN and Rae was discharged to have TPN at home over 12 hours at nighttime. Rae was supposed to be on TPN for 6 months but ended up being on TPN for almost two years.

Rae had multiple issues including respiratory and Gastro. Rae endured many surgeries and medications. In 2020 Rae caught covid and overcame it at home. In March Rae was diagnosed with a fungal infection in her lungs which was treated at home via IV antibiotics by us. Rae improved slightly. In July 2020 Rae was admitted to Southampton again with a fungal infection in her lungs and gastro issues. Rae was in hospital for over a month Rae was discharged and was home for 4 days before being readmitted to hospital after we noticed her breathing was laboured. Rae was transferred to Southampton and went straight to PICU. Rae was ventilated to give her body time to rest and heal. PICU were amazing and took amazing care of Rae over the weeks. On 15th August 2020 were were told that there was one more try at steroids for Rae but they wanted us to be prepared that this was unlikely to work and they had exhausted all efforts. On 16th August Rae’s lung had collapsed and were were advised to make the hard decision to turn off Rae’s ventilation. At 7.50 our beautiful, sweet, lovable darling girl took her last breath and her heart stopped beating under my hand. She had her Dad and I by her side like always while she made her journey without us. She was just 4 years old.

Rae left behind her 3 older brothers and her 6 week old sister. We are absolutely devastated and miss Rae every minute of every day. Everything we do now is to honour Rae’s memory and remember the little girl who lit up every room and touched so many people’s life’s.

In May 2023, Rae’s mum Aimee abseiled the 100m Spinnaker Tower fundraising £993.75 funding 40 music therapy sessions in Rae’s memory.

In June 2025, Rae’s grandad Ken and brother Aiden took on the 100m Spinnaker Tower abseil fundraising an amazing £3937.50 funding an incredible 158 music therapy sessions in Raes memory.