Farming family to honour daughter with fundraising challenge

A farming family from Oxfordshire is embarking on a major fundraising challenge in memory of their two-year-old daughter.

Michael and Di Kavanagh, who now live near Chipping Norton, found their daughter Eleanor had died in her sleep in January at their Shropshire home.

A postmortem 12 weeks later showed she had viral pneumonia.

Now the couple are taking on two challenges to thank those charities that helped them after Eleanor’s death.

See also: Welsh dairy family raise £75,000 for cancer charities

Di, a respiratory consultant, is set to cycle to Paris – covering 330 miles in four days –  leaving tomorrow (10 September).

Michael, an arable farm manager, will run 80 miles – the equivalent of three marathons – from their new home in Oxfordshire to Eleanor’s grave in Shropshire, setting off on Saturday 25 October.

The couple have together raised almost £15,000 and hope to reach £100,000 to support 2Wish, Child Bereavement UK, Midlands Air Ambulance, the Farming Community Network and St Chads Church, Boningale, where Eleanor has been laid to rest.

‘No sign anything was wrong’

“On Sunday 26 January we celebrated the fourth birthday of our daughter Fiona. We had a wonderful day and played as a family for hours that evening. Eleanor was just a few weeks short of her second birthday.

“We put the girls to bed, Eleanor giggled as I changed her and there were no signs anything could be wrong,” Michael Kavanagh said.

The following morning his wife Di found Eleanor had died. The couple called the emergency services, and the Air Ambulance team were the first to arrive.

“One of the crew stayed downstairs and played with Fiona. I’m forever grateful to that chap, because anything that made that day less traumatic for her is invaluable. The emergency services were all incredible that morning,” he told Farmers Weekly.

Box of memories

Michael says charities like 2Wish ensured that they had a clay footprint and a lock of hair from Eleanor, and a memory box to take home.

“We’ve been lost at times. It would be very easy in our situation for our lives to spiral out of control.

“There’s a massive amount of self-determination that we’ve needed to ensure that we don’t do that.

“And Fiona has been probably the most valuable part of that jigsaw, forcing us out of bed, forcing us to carry on with life, but also forcing us to be happy and silly and fun and look forward to the rest of our lives,” Michael said.

Helping others

The charity challenges, he adds, are also helping them to process what’s happened, and he hopes the money raised will mean other families going through a similar tragedy can also be supported.

“We’ve been through some brutal, brutal days. Having this challenge in front of us really inspires us to get out of bed and get exercising, and that itself makes us feel better and makes the day seem more bearable,” he added.

You can make a donation and help the family reach their target on their fundraising page.