Leeds mum's epic challenge for hospice in memory of one-year-old daughter

Esme Westmoreland, 30, took on 26 challenges on Sunday as part of the national 2.6 Challenge Day, to mark what should have been the London Marathon - and on the day her daughter Cecelia would have been 15 months old.

Cecelia had been born with a genetic condition called 1.p36 which caused multiple seizures - sometimes up to 100 a day - and problems with her heart.

At six months old, her family were told her condition was life-limiting and they were referred to Martin House hospice in Boston Spa, where Esme said the care was "incredible".

Cecelia died nine weeks ago - less than a month after her first birthday - at home, peacefully, surrounded by family, a situation made possible due to careful planning from the hospice.

Esme said: "When we felt she was in distress that weekend, Martin House let us give her morphine at home - well, at my mum and dad's house where we were - with pretty much all our family around her. Everyone got to give her a cuddle. So the hospice was absolutely wonderful. We couldn't have wished for anything better."

The hospice provided a special cooled room where Esme and husband James, 36, were able to take Cecelia after she died, to spend more time with her, and both have gone on to receive bereavement counselling from hospice staff.

Esme, of Otley, said: "They have helped our family so much. We had actually never heard of them before we had Cecelia and it's probably only half an hour from us. But the support and help that they provide for families is incredible."

When Cecelia died, the family planned to do a five-day walk through the Yorkshire Dales to visit places they had been with Cecelia but the coronavirus pandemic shut down those plans.

So, with help from friends in her exercise class, Esme's epic 26 challenges idea was devised. And during the day, friends and strangers also joined in with their own challenges from across the county and around the world - having followed the progress on Esme's Instagram account.

She said: "The current total is over £7,000 which is amazing and about 80 per cent of it came on the day. [That support] really helped me, particularly at about 6pm when I was really flagging.