Jamie Reeve (middle) has spoken out after his daughter Hallie passed away on Sunday (Picture: SWNS)
‘From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much,’ Jamie Reeve, 34, tells Metro.co.uk.
‘Every single person who donated and supported us, helped us at a time when we needed hope, and it’s that hope that kept Kim and I going.’
Jamie and partner Kim Wileman, 30, have thanked the public for their donations, support and prayers for his late daughter Hallie Ruby Reeve, who died on Sunday, just a month after her second birthday.
Hallie captured the nation’s hearts as she battled juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia (JMML) – a chronic and rare form of blood cancer.
Thousands, including celebrities like Ashley Cain, Tom Grennan and Danny Care, rallied to raise funds for Hallie’s CAR T-cell therapy in the US, which her parents Jamie and Kim were eventually told would not work, leaving them to take her home for palliative care.
The £870,091 raised since July will now be going to charity, although the beneficiary is yet to be confirmed.
Hallie Reeve in hospital after being diagnosed with JMML(picture: Hannah Dugdale / SWNS)
Jamie tells Metro about Hallie’s final days. He says: ‘We were told the CAR T-cell treatment wasn’t going to work. The cancer just mutated into all sorts of different things.
‘It was going to be putting Hallie through lots for basically zero chance of it working. We did explore other avenues. We were talking to a hospital in Manchester but things got worse.
‘We tried chemotherapy, and that didn’t work. We literally tried everything, so we were told that Hallie would die, but we could have maybe until Christmas.’
Upon receiving that news, the couple packed up from hospital and went home with Hallie ‘to make memories’.
‘That lasted two weeks, two days,’ Jamie adds. ‘In that two weeks and two days, we did everything. We went to the beach, we went to the safari park and met the elephants.
‘But most of the days we just spent at home together as a family on the sofa watching cartoons. You could travel the world, but they were our favorite times just snuggled up on the sofa.
‘She was she was out of hospital, she was happy.’
Hallie is described as a privilege to be around (picture: Hannah Dugdale / SWNS)
But on Thursday November 16 Hallie ‘was in some form of pain’ and was taken to hospital, where doctors said she was bleeding into her stomach, near her spleen.
Jamie says: ‘That’s where end of life care started. We immediately got an ambulance home. Our care plan was to have her die in her favorite place, which was the sofa at home, and the palliative care team were incredible.
‘They made sure that she was pain free and she went peacefully in her sleep. As horrific as it was, there were some really beautiful moments.
‘We had all of my family, all of Kim’s family, come around to say their goodbyes because a lot of people hadn’t seen Hallie for a while. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer passing for Hallie. It was everything we wanted.’
There is currently no set date for the funeral, but Jamie and Kim are planning to hold the service in Coventry Cathedral because they want ‘only the best for Hallie’.
They are hoping to set up a live stream outside the cathedral, so members of the public can come and pay their respects.
Jamie says he wished things were different and that they ‘could have had a lifetime with Hallie’.
‘She was just the best. She makes me so proud to call her my daughter. She was the strongest, most brave little girl and so gentle, nothing fazed her.
‘We never showed her fear. All the nurses said how brave she was. Through all this she was an inspiration.
‘I think sometimes we forget she was just a normal two-year-old and she was as good as gold. She was a privilege to be around. And it was it was an honor to be here dad, it really was.’
He adds, for any other parents going through something similar: ‘If there’s hope, take it forward. Take that hope, whether it’s 1%, whether it’s a half a percent, you have to hold on to that hope and just stay strong every day.’
The family’s appeal for funds for the CAR T-cell therapy in the US received the backing of former pro footballer and reality star Ashley Cain, who lost his daughter Azaylia to cancer in 2020.
He wrote at the time: ‘What a beautiful little girl. Sending my love, my strength and prayers your way. Also, my hand in help.’
The CAR T-cell therapy was the same treatment that cured Oscar Saxelby-Lee, the British boy who won the nation’s hearts after his leukaemia battle went viral in 2018.
Kim and Jamie, of Coventry, said they first spotted something was wrong with baby Hallie just hours before their flight to Spain for a family holiday in July last year.
A doctor initially advised them it was just heat making Hallie lethargic but when they landed in Spain her condition worsened. Hallie was rushed to Malaga hospital – within an hour she was diagnosed with cancer.
Hallie’s aunt, Hannah Dugale, 32, previously said: ‘Within an hour they had a leukaemia diagnosis. They had only been in Spain a couple of hours. Hallie was just eight months old.
‘She had bruising too, it’s a common symptom. You put it down to crawling.
‘When they were in Spain she was in intensive care for 10 days, she was really quite unwell. They weren’t able to sort out treatment plans and were trying to get her fit to fly home.
‘She had a private air ambulance to get her home from Spain. They took her straight to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.’
Hallie began intensive treatment when she arrived back in the UK and underwent chemotherapy, blood transfusions and two stem cell transplants – but both transplants failed.
Family, friends and some of the 40,000 members of the public who donated have taken to social media to share their sadness at her passing.
Hannah wrote: ‘Auntie H will love you forever, Hallie. Tuesday was the most special day ever. Memories locked in my heart baby girl.’
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‘Through all this, she was an inspiration.’