Maia was born on 4 June 2015, she was our much loved and certainly much wanted first child. Born only eight months after our wedding, Maia was often referred to as our honeymoon baby. After a straightforward pregnancy and birth we took our gorgeous girl home from Huddersfield Birth Centre to start our new life as a family of three. Maia was absolutely delightful, with a smile that could light up a room, she would melt your heart and make a lasting impression on you in an instant. Maia’s nickname ‘Maia Mouse’ was assigned at only a few weeks old and suited her just perfectly.

Maia’s first months were spent at home or on various outings to baby sensory, baby massage, swimming or various other baby adventures. We took her everywhere and this made her develop into such a social baby. As a family we gave Maia many opportunities and even took her on holiday several times. Maia’s best friend was Poppy, her beloved cocker spaniel, whom she would often sit and hold onto her collar. Poppy all the while was only too happy to oblige.

As the months passed and Maia developed her character, she also developed her love for her favourite things, she loved music and even at only a few months it became apparent that she was desperate to be on the move, sitting up and attempting to stand at every opportunity. She particularly loved her ‘wiggly worm’ a small colourful wooden worm toy that she held at all times.

Maia’s development was never in question as she was growing and developing in leaps and bounds and thriving in every way possible. She was playing, babbling and ever so content, the perfect little girl. We are so lucky and incredibly proud to have had her in our lives, Maia was something else, and her strength, spirit and nature were admirable.

It was Christmas 2016 when we first became aware something was wrong. Long hospital stays followed then in January the diagnosis came, we had been struck down by a chance in a million. Maia had an extremely rare genetic condition. Simply put she had cancer of her central nervous system, it was untreatable and inevitable would have only one outcome.

After the devastating news of Maia’s diagnosis, as Maia’s parents we made the decision to make the most of the time we had left with our beautiful girl. People often ask us how we found the strength to get through it, but that was easy as Maia needed us more then, than ever. She only knew love and happiness and we intended to keep it that way so we set out to give her as many opportunities as we could in the time that we had left with her.

There was so much that our little girl would never get to do so we started by writing a list of all the things that we really wanted her to experience. Known as the ‘Adventures of Maia Olivia’ the list contained many simple experiences such as; visit a beach, write her name in the sand, go to a play gym, visit Yorkshire Sculpture Park, go to a farm, go swimming, look at mummy’s wedding dress, play with my friends. It also contained some experiences which took a little more to organise, such as; get christened, have a party, have a weekend away with my family, ride on a train, go to Buckingham Palace, visit a zoo, have some professional photographs taken and more.

Maia loved every minute and we can honestly say some of these days were the best days of our lives. Our family and friends got involved with some of Maia’s Adventures too which made these experiences all the more special for her. One of her adventures was to walk part of the Pennine Way, which we did with family members and some of our close friends. The walk ended with a local folk band playing music in the local pub, Maia absolutely loved it and I will always look back fondly to this as she sat upon my lap kicking her legs in time to the music, mesmerised by the whole experience. It was exactly what we set out to achieve.

Another highlight of Maia’s Adventures was the day we took her to London. It was a jam-packed trip which included swimming, a trip to the London Aquarium, a visit to see Buckingham Palace and a guided tour of 10 Downing Street, where she sat in the Prime Minister’s chair in the Cabinet Room.
Our little girl was incredibly happy, experiencing so much in such a short time. The photographs we took and the memories we were making in those months will truly last a lifetime. It is these memories that got us thinking about the Maia Mouse Foundation. We had been lucky in the sense that we could make these memories, taking the time away from work to spend time with our beloved Maia. Not everybody has this opportunity, and as your whole world crumbles everything around you continues, from work, to mortgages and beyond.

This is the foundation for our charity, to help create even just one memory for those families suffering just like we did, and if we can do that one thing, the whole thing will be a resounding success.

Joe & Gemma x