Amelia Star Furness, from Chapel-en-le-Frith, features alongside Blythe Bear on our posters to help promote #GoBlue, our fundraising campaign to get people involved in raising vital funds for hospice services by ‘going blue’ from the 20th to 26th March.
Amelia was just four-years-old when her best friend, Kaiden tragically died of leukaemia and pneumonia, aged just seven. Within five weeks of Kaiden’s very sudden and devastating death, Amelia’s little sister, Kacie was born with severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy*.
Since then, Kacie (who is now six-years-old), has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and requires around-the-clock care.
These huge life changes were, quite understandably, a lot for Amelia to cope with. With support from Amelia’s primary school and the family’s social worker, Amelia, who is now ten-years-old, was referred to Blythe House for counselling and play therapy in summer 2022.
Raegan, Amelia’s mummy, explained: ‘Amelia had grown up with Kaiden since the day she was born. Kaiden’s mum, Mel and I have been best friends for 15 years. There was a three-year age gap between them but they spent every single day together – weekends, Christmases, Easter. Whatever Kaiden had, Amelia wanted, and vice versus. They loved each other very much. When Kaiden died, we were all absolutely devastated.
‘Just five weeks later, Kacie was born but she was very, very poorly. Amelia saw me at home on the sofa in labour and I had lost a lot of blood. The midwife came around and needed to cut Kacie out of me. Doctors said she wouldn’t make it through the night, but she is a little fighter and she’s here six years later.
‘Throughout the years of Kacie’s life, she’s had episodes where she is unresponsive and Amelia has had to call 999, relay back to me how to perform CPR and go to alert our neighbours for help. All of this total upheaval was a lot for Amelia to take in. She has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and she struggles with emotional problems. All of a sudden, she would just burst into tears and I wasn’t able to help her.
‘We live locally so we have always known about Blythe House, and my Dad regularly donates to the hospice but I just didn’t realise that it provided counselling support to children Amelia’s age. The school and our social worker referred Amelia for support, and she had 12 sessions of counselling throughout 2022.
‘I have noticed a huge difference in Amelia’s behaviour since having the support from Blythe House. The counselling has helped Amelia to realise that sadly, forever is forever. That Kaiden isn’t going to come back and that Kacie is going to be poorly forever. Amelia has been able to talk openly about her feelings, and Ray [Leech, lead counsellor at Blythe House] has helped Amelia in a real way that I can’t. She provided Amelia with a safe space which was just for her.
‘By the third session, Amelia was jumping out of the car in the car park and running in to the hospice reception. June [Igo, hospice volunteer] was always on reception during Amelia’s sessions and she was so kind and friendly. Every week, we bought something from June on reception – a little handmade item or something that someone had knitted – and that was Amelia’s little thing that she liked to do. After her last ever session, June gave Amelia a star-shaped Christmas decoration and said: “That’s yours to keep from me.”
‘Amelia is lot calmer now; and is able to talk through things. Before, we weren’t able to discuss things without her getting upset, and she was so frightened of being with Kacie in case anything bad happened, but now she plays with her, and sings to Kacie for hours.
‘Amelia was nominated for a Mini Hero award in our community; we don’t know who made the nomination but we’re so grateful. She also attended the emergency services day at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton in October and won a hamper. The police read out what an amazing girl she is for helping to care for Kacie.’
Amelia explained: ‘Ray with the purple hair helped me with emotional support. My favourite thing when I was with her was doing crafts and activities. One time, we played with clay and we also made a memory box for Kaiden which I drew a wonky giraffe on. Giraffes were Kaiden’s favourite animal. On my last session, Ray gave me a huge giraffe teddy which I’ve called Kaiden.’
