Mum’s skydive challenge in memory of baby daughter

Salma took part in our skydive weekend with her sisters to raise money for Eckersley House in memory of her daughter Amaya

A mum is took on a skydive with her two sisters to raise money for The Sick Children’s Trust in memory of her baby daughter.

Salma Sadiah from Bradford took to the skies on 11 May with her sisters, Halima and Uzma, before skydiving from 15,000ft to raise money in memory her daughter Amaya.

Amaya was born premature at 27 weeks in 2022, weighing under 1kg. After being transferred to Bradford Hospital it became clear that Amaya needed specialist treatment, so she was taken to the intensive care unit at Leeds Children’s Hospital.

While Salma was still receiving treatment at the hospital Amaya’s dad, Ibrar, spent the first night in his car as he was unable to stay on the intensive care unit. After seeing he had nowhere to stay, one of the nurses contacted The Sick Children’s Trust to see if the charity could support the family. Ibrar was given a room at the charity’s Eckersley House ‘Home from Home’, where he could stay free of charge just minutes from Amaya’s bedside, being joined by Salma when she had recovered enough to be discharged.

Due to her prematurity Amaya needed multiple surgeries for various complications before developing necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), a serious illness in which tissues in the intestine become inflamed and start to die. After two months of treatment in Leeds, Amaya sadly passed away.

Salma has never forgotten the support she received at Eckersley House and while staying there vowed to support The Sick Children’s Trust when they returned home as a way of saying thank you to the charity. Now she is getting ready to take on a skydive to raise vital funds. Salma said:

“It was such a difficult time when Amaya was in hospital, but it would have been so much harder without the support of The Sick Children’s Trust. I really don’t know what I would have done without it. There were times when we needed to get back to Amaya’s side immediately in an emergency, which wouldn’t have been possible if we had to make our way from home through the traffic.

“We only got two months with our daughter but thanks to Eckersley House we were able to spend so much extra time with her, making memories, taking photos and just being together, rather than spending that time travelling which I’ll always be grateful for.

“I always wanted to give back to this charity which made such a difference to us. After seeing the skydive challenge on their website I thought I’d go for it. I’ve not done anything like this before and I’m actually scared of heights so I’m was quite nervous to do the skydive, to be honest. It was great having Halima and Uzma with me so we could support each other.”

More information about Salma’s fundraising can be found on her Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/page/salma-s-1707752503554

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