Fife mum's charity skydive in memory of four-year old daughter to raise £5000

Kate Grubb from Cardenden is hoping to raise £5000 to sponsor a room at the Ronald McDonald house in Edinburgh. The funds will allow the room to be renamed in memory of her Maisy Grubb for three years. Kate and her husband, Michael , lost their child at just four and half years old in December 2022.

Maisy was healthy until her first seizure a week after her first birthday. She was diagnosed with a genetic mutation of her SCN1A gene when she was two years old. Kate’s fundraising page can be found at:www.gofundme.com/f/maisy-grubb

Kate said: “We didn't know that there was anything wrong with her, and it was just after her first birthday that she had her first seizure. She went on to have quite a lot of seizures after that.

“There would be times where she was having a seizure every week, then there would be times where she would have a good couple of months in between. She never used to have small seizures or anything – they were huge, massive, prolonged seizures.

Maisy required care from staff at both the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh Sick Kids. Kate said that despite her seizures Maisy was a “wild one”.

Kate explained: “She always bounced back. There was one time, just a year before she passed away, she had a five hour long seizure and the next day after she was taken off the ventilator, she was just wild!

“She used to have an alter ego. She would be the cutest little thing and then this switch would flip and then ‘Patricia’ used to come out in full force. She had me terrified of Patricia!”

Maisy suffered a number of seizures over the years before on November 23, 2022 she had her worst one to date, leading to her yet again being ventilated. The seizure once again took the family back to Edinburgh Sick Kids, where Maisy passed away eight days later on December 1.

Kate paid tribute to the support offered by Ronald McDonald House during their stays.

She said: “Obviously you never ever want to be in Ronald McDonald House because it means that your kid is really poorly, but it is a little slice of normality. It has got 25 rooms, and it just gives you that space where you can escape.

“Whenever we stayed there, Maisy was always in the intensive care ward. Parents aren’t allowed to sleep there overnight, so the house gave us some place that my husband and I, and other family members, could come and stay. We could just be in the same building but a phone call away.”

Kate will take to the skies on Saturday, June 22, three days after Maisy’s birthday. She hopes the funds raised will provide much needed respite for other families.

She said: “Hopefully that can just give a bit security to other people”