My eldest daughter Layla Jayne and I will be undertaking a 14500ft tandem sky dive in August 2010. We have decided to raise money for the Neuroblastoma Society in memory of my Niece Sophie Ross. Sophie's mum Lorrellei and her husband Paul.

Sophie (two Shoes) was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive childhood cancer Neuroblastoma in 1999 age 3. After fighting the cancer for nearly 3 years Sophie sadly passed away aged 5 years 8 months. Sophie was the youngest of my sisters 3 children. After a long hard fight Sophie's death although painful for us all. was in the end a release.

In her short time in this world, Sophie bought great joy to all that had the fortune to meet her. The stress and strain of Sophie's illness had a detrimental effect on Lorrellei's marriage resulting in divorce.

New love was soon to be found in a close friend Paul Fuller, who was also a school friend of mine. Things started to look up for the family. Paul & Lorrellei moved in together and Sophie had a brief but joyous respite. The cancer returned and Sophie sadly died on 26th April 2001.

After buying a new house together in January 2002 Lorrellei & Paul flew out to Cuba for their dream wedding. They decided this was something they wanted to do alone and hold a big party for the family on their return. They were married on March 11th 2002. Before Sophie's death Lorrellei had made a promise to her to swim with dolphin's as this was something Sophie had wanted to do but was never well enough. On March 14th 2002 just 3 days after their wedding while returning on an internal flight having just fulfilled that very promise, Lorellei & Paul were both tragically killed in a freak accident.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1876203.stm

Coming so soon after the death of Sophie this second tragedy still has a lasting affect on all of us. As the anniversary of both these events approaches, please help us to remember them all in the best way we can. By helping to raise money in funding research in to the treatment of this devastating cancer.

About Neuroblastoma:

Neuroblastoma is a tumour arising from particular nerve cells, which run in a chain-like fashion up the back of the child's abdomen and chest and into the skull following the line of the spinal cord (neuro = nerve, blastoma = collection of tumour cells). The tumour occurs either in the sympathetic nervous system or closely associated adrenal glands and is usually, although not always, located in the abdomen.

Because the symptoms of the disease tend to be varied and vague, some two-thirds of children are not diagnosed until the disease is widespread. It is a tumour almost exclusively of childhood and there is no exactly comparable tumour in an adult.

It has its own specialist treatment that is different from any treatment undergone by anyone else you know who has had cancer. Despite intensive courses of chemotherapy and often intial success in treating the disease, the child often relapses, making this one of the most lethal of all childhood cancers.

For more information on Neuroblastoma visit: http://www.nsoc.co.uk/index.html