An eight-year-old girl undergoing treatment for leukaemia has raised over £2,600 for Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) by tackling an epic cycle challenge last month.
Sophie Miller was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in April 2021, when aged seven.
When her sisters, Phoebe and Chloe, did some fundraising last year, she wasn’t able to join them due to the intensity of her treatment at the time.
But now in the maintenance stage of her treatment, she was this year determined to do something herself after her mum, Tanya, mentioned to her about taking part in CCLG’s ‘C through September’ campaign, where supporters are tasked with choosing a challenge starting with the letter ‘C’ to help raise vital funds.
Sophie, who lives in Dubai, decided to take on a cycling challenge, which saw her complete a series of mini-challenges before finishing with a final 10km ride around the city’s Arabian Ranches community.
Sophie’s accomplishment was made even more impressive given Dubai’s warm and humid weather conditions, which meant setting off at 6:30am to beat the heat.
Tanya, who is originally from Cornwall, said:
We are so incredibly proud of Sophie. She’s always been a kind and caring little girl and as soon as I said there was a charity event, she was keen to be involved.
Last year her sisters and friends did a 10km walk for charity, but Sophie couldn’t do that as she was still in the middle of her treatment, which made her sad.
This year she was determined to do something and cycling jumped out to her.
Sophie hadn’t been on a bike in almost 18months so we had to do some training rides to get her confidence up and to see how she coped with the distances – but she did brilliantly with it all and did her fastest speed on the day!
She loved it and is now feeling very inspired and can’t wait to more things!
Sophie said: “It makes me really happy to have cycled so far because last year I was still in hospital and couldn’t ever have done the bike ride.
“I was really surprised at how much I raised in the end – everyone was very kind to sponsor me and help raise so much money.
“I feel very happy and Mummy says I should be very proud of myself! But my legs did hurt the next day!”
Tanya explained that the family wanted to fundraise for, and raise awareness of, CCLG, having been supported by its patient information resources throughout Sophie’s treatment.
She said: “Having accurate information from a source we could trust was incredibly helpful. I regularly looked at the CCLG website and downloaded lots of the information booklets and factsheets, especially those that helped explain what was going on to a child.
“Even as we near the end of Sophie’s treatment, the CCLG website is still a great source of information for life after treatment, moving into teenage years and more.”
She added: “It’s also thanks to the incredible research funded by charities like CCLG, that children now have much better treatments and outcomes than only 30 years ago, when survival rates were drastically different to what they are now.”
With Sophie’s treatment due to end early next year, she is looking forward to taking part in more and more physical activities as her strength and stamina return, and is even planning another fundraising challenge in 2023 alongside her sisters.
She has also been able to return to school and see her friends, with many of them turning out to offer support to her during her challenge, helping to make it even more memorable.
Tanya said:
She’s handled the treatment really well and is now in the maintenance phase, which she should complete in April 2023.
She’s doing so well and being in maintenance has meant she could go back to school, socialise with her friends and take part in the everyday activities and sports that eight-year-olds do.
Sophie is a very sociable little girl and one of the hardest parts of the treatment for her was not being able to see her friends or go to school – now she enjoys it even more!
The challenge was really special as so many of her school friends came out to cheer her on as we went along and at the finish line.
Gill Smitherman, CCLG’s Head of Fundraising, said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to Sophie for her fundraising and congratulations on a fantastic achievement.
“She is an incredibly inspiring young girl, and her amazing efforts will help us continue supporting other families with our information resources and life-saving research.
“We’re so grateful to Sophie and the entire Miller family for their support, and we can’t wait to hear what she has planned for next year’s challenge!”