LOOM bands are taking over the house of Skye Hall’s family as they prepare to spend their first Christmas without the brave youngster who died in August.

Chains of the brightly-coloured bands have wound their way around their Christmas tree and replaced the presents underneath as the Loom to the Moon campaign continues.

Skye was just five when he died on August 26 after battling a brain tumour for a year.

His parents Andrew, 42, and Sally, and younger brother Jesse, three, appealed to the public to help them make the world’s longest loom band chain to raise money for his charity Blue Skye Thinking.

 

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Due to finish yesterday the scheme has now been extended to Easter next year, due to popular demand.

Mrs Hall, 36, said: “We’re still getting bands from all over the place. Just this week we’ve got chains from Scotland and the Isle of Man.”

And in February the family are planning on travelling across the country to visit the cancer wards in 19 children’s hospitals across the country.

Mrs Hall said: “We’re starting in Scotland and working our way back to Oxford. We’ll take presents to all of the kids on the oncology wards.”

For Christmas the family made a special appearance at the annual festival party at Kamran’s Ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital, where Skye was treated.


Mrs Hall said: “We were only going to pop in but we ended up staying for about four hours. It was so lovely to see those children still smiling, it made me feel closer to Skye.


“Skye loved Christmas. What child doesn’t? It was all about keeping the magic alive for as long as possible.”

Oxford Mail:

Jesse Hall, three, with loom bands sent in for Skye's Loom to the Moon appeal festooning the family's Christmas tree

Despite the festivities, the family have said life was still hard without the brave youngster.


Mrs Hall said: “The second he was born I felt my life had started. And now I’m just not me any more.


“My soul died the second that he died. I have to live out a life sentence without him.


“But it’s my duty to look after Jesse the best way I can now.”


She added: “The shock is still there. I still can’t believe that my child had cancer, that I’m never going to see my first-born baby again.


“I never thought he’d die because you do always have hope. You have to otherwise you could not possibly endure what you do unless you keep telling yourself there’s hope.


“Skye always chose life. Even when he was paralysed he did always believe that he would be able to walk again.”


Skye’s grave, in The Parish Church of Saint Martin Bladon, near Woodstock, is decorated with toys, pinwheels and plants.


Mrs Hall said: “We wanted to make it a place that Jesse would want to come and play, rather than it being a chore for him. Every time we come we bring something new to decorate it.”


Despite being a 90-minute round trip from the family home, Mrs Hall visits every day.


She said: “This was the right place for Skye to be buried. We used to live in Bladon, right up until Skye was born.


“This church is where Andrew and I got married and it’s where Skye was christened.”


Playing with a bow and arrow in the graveyard, Jesse aimed towards the sky and shouted: “Coming to you Skye.”


Mrs Hall said their younger son Jesse talked to Skye a lot. 


She said: “He throws toys up in the air and says Skye is throwing them back down again. 


“I worry so much about him not remembering what Skye was like. 


“He’s so young.”


When asked what he missed most about Skye, Jesse said: “Playing. “It’s not as good now Skye’s not here.”

LOOM TO THE MOON

WHILE Skye had cancer, he died from radio-chemo neurotoxicity.


It meant healthy cells in his brain and spinal cord were damaged by the traditional treatments of radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

Oxford Mail:

Skye Hall
Blue Skye Thinking funds research into alternative treatments to child cancers.


More than £72,000 has been donated since the charity was set up in July and will go towards various research projects. It means the charity are half way to funding its first official researcher who will work on frontline research. To have someone in the post by September the charity needs to raise the rest of the money by May. The Loom to the Moon project has more than 14,500 likes on Facebook, and the family have already received more than 24.5km of loom bands - the height of 123 Didcot Power Stations.

 

  • For information about Blue Skye Thinking visit blueskyethinking. org and to learn more about its Loom to the Moon campaign visit here

To donate, text LOOM66 £2 to 70070 or visit here

 

 

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