Uncle of baby girl locked down in Sheffield Children’s Hospital for THREE MONTHS raises money for ‘amazing’ ward which saved her life after brain tumour

Father-of-two Nathan Owen-Brown, aged 29, will this August ride 103 miles with six friends around the Lincolnshire coastal towns near to where they live.

Nathan’s niece Soraya Owen-Brown, has been in Sheffield Children’s Hospital for the last 12 weeks after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour aged just nine months old.

After initially being told by medics back home near Grimsby that she had nothing wrong with her, Soraya endured a mammoth 10-hour operation in February to remove 90 per cent of the tumour.

However, because her illness coincided with the coronavirus crisis, Soraya had been unable to see her siblings for months, while her mum Nikita and her partner isolate themselves from the rest of the family.

Nathan said: “She has just had her first birthday in hospital and the only way we can see her at the moment is Facetime. My mum and dad saw her on her birthday but that’s the first time in eight weeks.

“But she has coped with it so well and is always happy and smiling. I don’t think a lot of adults would have coped with it as well as she has.

“In terms of the ride, I just put the feelers out to a close group of friends I have. We aren’t really proper cyclists but we just wanted to do something to help the amazing ward staff.”

Nathan will be setting off on his ride on August 29, taking in the seaside resorts of Cleethorpes, Skegness and Mablethorpe before having fish and chips and a beer back home in Grimsby.

A friend of his has already completed a marathon to pay for Nikita’s travel costs to Sheffield, while the money raised from Nathan’s fund will go to the Children’s Hospital Charity’s Build a Better Future campaign, which hopes to provide a new cancer and leukemia ward for children like Soraya.

To contribute visit www.gofundme.com/f/sheffield-children039s-hospital-ward-6.