Amelia's Young Highlander Awards: Winners' stories
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The tales behind all the inspiring winners of this year's awards for brave and resilient youngsters.
Amelia's Young Highlander Awards seek to recognise the best and bravest of our young people.
Returning for the first time in three years last week, this year's awards ceremony heard some truly inspiring and moving stories.
Adeline Davidson: Joint winner of Leo Flett Child of Bravery Award
Adeline is 5 years old. She has spent so much time in hospital, it would probably total to half of her life. From birth she was born with a bowel abnormality that stopped her taking milk and required an operation.
Later she had breathing issues and was then diagnosed with a narrow throat and then became terribly ill with her blood levels severely low.
In February 2019, after numerous tests and bone marrow aspirates the doctors realised they were dealing with something very rare but the priority was to get a donor organised for a bone marrow transplant.
Adeline waited 2.5 years for her treatment and had 9 setbacks in total, including donor let down, failed donors, covid, lockdown, brexit, illnesses and shortage of room in hospital.
During this time Addie was transfusion dependent and it became normal for her to be in hospital for blood and platelets all the time. Also during this 2.5 years she got sepsis 3 times, 4 blue light ambulance journeys, 4 new hickman lines and 2 repairs and bugs and colds along the way!
The countless tests and needles, poking and prodding Adeline has endured is unbelievable and yet she smiles, she is so understanding, so brave.
When it came to treatment time she took it all in her stride, even shaving her own head when her hair started falling out. She kept her family smiling the whole time.
During treatment genetic mutations were identified in Adeline that explained the blood and bone marrow issues but also revealed a lot of other potential symptoms and conditions she could have.
Her right hip had eroded and she lost the right hip ball which resulted in a lot of pain that she still has now and she still just keeps on going.
The family did the genetic testing which discovered that their other daughter Josie, Adeline’s sister also had a mutation. Since then Adeline has been a huge support for her sister, explaining everything about the doctors, tools and tests that are required as well as singing to her when she is getting needles or tests done.
Eva Morrison: Winner of Child Fundraiser Award
Eva is 7 years old. During lockdown in 2021 when Eva was only 6 years old, she wanted to do something that would help support older people in the Highlands who were struggling with loneliness and isolation. She decided that she wanted to take part in the Virtual Kiltwalk to raise money to help the small local charity Morning Call and Visiting Service whose volunteers make daily morning telephone calls to older people in the Highlands to have a chat with them and check on them. The charity also offers three other befriending services and these provide vital support to older people.
Eva took on the fundraising challenge of the virtual Kiltwalk in April 2021 with her aim to walk 5 miles, she absolutely smashed this and walked over 7 miles and raised over £1200 for the charity.
Eva was one of the youngest in the area to take part in the virtual Kiltwalk and her efforts were published in the local paper due to her amazing achievement and the fantastic contribution to the Highland based charity.
Eva is an inspiration to us all and deserves to be recognised for her amazing fundraising for a small local Highland charity.
Faith Marshall: Winner of the Wellbeing Child Award
Faith is 14 years old and Faith is an amazing young lady who is the best sister to her little brother Logan as well as a great help to her parents.
Logan has severe autism and over the last couple of years has been in and out of hospital for various medical issues resulting in him getting a peg feed tube. This caused him serious distress and had a major effect on his behaviour.
Faith herself as a youngster had neuroblast melanoma, a form of Leukemia and her parents were told she most likely wouldn’t walk or reach many typical milestones. Against all the odds and a lot of determination, she did walk and thrived beyond her parents’ expectations.
With her brother needing constant supervision and a lot of her parents’ time Faith has found dancing as a passion and is now a serious contender in various championships.
She never complains if Mum can’t always attend her competitions or give her as much time as her mum would like. Sometimes plans get cancelled and Faith can be disappointed but instead of blaming her brother she is always there to offer help and support to her parents and is a huge comfort to Logan.
She is his best friend and one thing that he can always rely on when he’s upset to try and calm him.
She is amazing and doesn’t even realise it.
Hollie Morgan: Joint winner of Amelia’s Keep on Swimming Award
Hollie is 5 years old. She was diagnosed late in pregnancy with ventricularomegaly and was born at 36 week. She stayed for several weeks in SCBU where she was diagnosed with agenesis of the corpus collosum with colphcephaly.
Her first year was mainly spent in hospital between Inverness and Aberdeen undergoing three surgeries in one week at 4 months and having to endure an intraosseous infusion as she started to shut down.
Finally, the feeding tube was gone but replaced with a peg gastrostomy and followed later the same week by a roux en y jejunostomy.
Hollie required oxygen until shortly after she was fed into the bowel she became less dependent on oxygen.
Hospital became Hollie’s second home and she caught every virus going which would leave her very unwell.
Hollie could not hold her head up or even sit but at the age of 3 Hollie started to sit up and commando crewel physio began to pay off.
Hollie was determined to prove everyone wrong! Over the months she received more and more diagnoses including registered blind global development delay, being non-verbal and gut dysmotility.
But today Hollie is walking and trying to communicate using her finger to point and trying so hard to say words. She is also now eating orally and tries her best to feed herself.
She has started to understand her family from time to time and she attends St Duthus special school where she is coming on so well!
She has come such a long way for the girl who was told she would never walk or talk.
Josie Davidson: Joint winner of Amelia’s Keep on Swimming Award
Josie is 3 years old. She has a very rare genetic mutation called DNAJC21, unfortunately it comes with many other conditions and symptoms and also causes bone marrow failure. She has had hip surgeries, so many blood tests and bone marrow aspirates. She suffers daily with being clumsy, bruising, struggling to gain weight, bowel issues, very short stature and has developmental delay.
In spite all of this and more, Josie keeps going, she keeps smiling and stays wild!! Josie enjoys her life even though hospitals and tests are a regular and now normal occurrence for her.
We don’t know what the future holds for Josie but it’s likely she will need further surgeries, chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. When it comes to this she will be as brave as she has been previously. She is a superstar.
Katie Steell: Winner of Special Sibling Award
Katie is 4 years old and a wonderful little sister, playing a big sister role to her brother Cole who has Autism and severe learning disabilities and is also non-verbal.
Katie spends every day helping her mum with Cole. She helps her to feed him, with his communication for which he has to use an iPad, to playing with him at the park or joining him on walks.
Katie is often prevented from doing what she wants to do because of Cole’s disabilities but she always takes these letdowns in her stride and tries to think of things that Cole can do with her instead.
Although Cole doesn’t and cannot give much back to Katie, it is clear that he appreciates her and trusts her. Katie is very protective of her big brother and she is devoted to him and they share a very special bond. She makes her parents extremely proud.
Leo Flett: Winner of Special Recognition Award (received by parents Louise and Mitchell Flett)
Leo from Balloch was born with a rare form of congenital muscular dystrophy affecting fewer than 500 people across Britain. Known to all of us here at Amelia’s Young Highlander Awards, Leo lost his life just aged 4.
In a bid to improve life for him and others with his parents Mitch and Louse launched the Leo's Pride group, raising funds for his care and for the Muscular Dystrophy UK charity. They continue to raise money in his memory.
Leo’s parents Louise and Mitchell have had to endure so much pain and sorrow in losing Leo at such a young age but also with having to deal with Louise being so ill and fighting for her own life.
The fact that they put this aside and continue to raise money for charity is amazing and they deserve to be recognised.
Lewis Russell: Winner of Child Carer Award
Lewis is 12 years old and has been through a lot since the age of 4. He has looked after his mum, helping her care for his baby sister when she came out of a relationship.
His mum suffers with borderline personality disorder and has anxiety and OCD. She has functional neurological disorder and suffers terrible migraines.
Lewis is a designated Young Carer and is his mother’s rock. He is adored by his mum and his sister who feel that he is a role model who has always put them first before his own childhood.
Lola Aitken: Winner of Child of Courage Award
Lola is 7 years old. From birth Lola has continually suffered from various infections that are minimal to you or I but always ends in a hospital stay for Lola. She is about to undergo a serious complex operation and will no doubt take it all in her stride. She deserves this award for being so courageous and brave at all times.
Lola is a true inspiration, she goes through many different therapies and treatments on a regular basis. She does all of this with a smile and just radiates positivity. She is a wonderful friend to those around her bringing pure joy and loyalty like no other.
Louise Cooper: Winner of Child Hero Award
Louise is 7 years old and has always been her brother Zack’s best cheerleader. Whenever he has a new operations or had to do new exercises or use new equipment, she is right by his side helping him with it or trying out the equipment first to show him how and that there is nothing to be scared of.
She has always and continues to take an active role in Zack’s care. She helps her mum to get everything set up for his procedures. She helps with housework and has also started to help him with transfers from his wheelchair to the floor.
She is her mum’s biggest rock and their bond is such that they cannot sleep without each other.
Maisie Star Torley: Winner of Child Community Award
Maisie is 4 years old. During both lockdowns Maisie went above and beyond in wanting to make other children happy.
She handed out over 500 books to children in the Tain area in the first lockdown and in all weathers, saying that she wanted them to be happy as they couldn’t get out.
Maisie was also in and out of hospital and saw that children were not allowed to play like they normally would and could not access the playroom. She wanted to the sick boys and girls some toys to play with in their beds and together with her parents came up with the cuddle bag idea.
25 bags were made with a teddy and lots of little toys and games for each child to enjoy at their beds. Maisie loved this and has done it 2 years in a row.
Maisie has the biggest of hearts for a 4 year old. She always wants to give to others, even saying that Santa need only give her a small gift as other boys and girls need presents.
Maisie gifted her old nursery with sunflower seeds and soil from Morrison Alness and gifted both her new nursery and ninjas chocolate from Tesco Tain.
Riley Maclennan: Winner of Child Warrior Award
Riley has faced not one, but two cancer battles in his life and is now in remission thanks to the cell transplant which took place on September 23rd 2021.
Riley first contracted cancer on December 1st 2016, at the age of two. He was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, a cancer of the white blood cells.
After a four-year cancer battle he rang the bell of the cancer clinic to mark the end of his journey.
One year later, it was discovered that his platelet count was 2,000, when it should have been somewhere between 150 and 200 and he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of blood cancer that is very rare in children. In fact, no one else in the world has the same condition as Riley.
It was explained to them that some people with myelodysplastic syndrome go on to develop acute myeloid leukaemia and that in Riley’s case the risk of this was very high unless they moved quickly with treatment
The family were advised that Riley’s best chance of recovery was a stem cell transplant, using stem cells from umbilical cord blood.
Following intense chemotherapy in an isolation room over 14 days before he was ready for the transplant where it was administered into Riley’s bloodstream through a syringe.
Dad Kevin said "there’s a new mum out there who has saved our little boy’s life. We’ve been given the greatest gift of all from a stranger" and through a long and tough journey Riley started making improvements by November. Tests showed Riley's blood was 100 per cent, meaning the transplant had worked.
Savannah Kelly: Winner of Best Fundraiser on the Children’s Ward at Raigmore Hospital
Savannah is 12 years old and decided after spending so much time in the ward with Amelia that she was going to do another fundraiser to raise money to go shopping. She wanted to buy as many gifts as she could for the children in the ward and their siblings who often get left out.
She secured a corporate sponsor, Caley Timber and Building Supplies and organised a raffle.
In two weeks Savannah raised just over £1200 and then took all the money and went shopping filling trolley after trolley of toys, books and even pyjamas because she knew that children often arrive in hospital with nothing.
Due to Savannah spending so much time in the children’s ward even on Amelia’s birthday, she was determined other families who came in over Christmas would all get a gift as a surprise.
Savannah is always sidelined by her sister Amelia and never complains often coming straight from school to the hospital to see her little sister.
Zack Cooper: Joint winner of Leo Flett Child of Bravery Award
Zack is 6 years old. He has spina bifida and hydrocephalus and is a wheelchair user. The spina bifida caused bilateral club foot and hip dysplasia, both requiring surgery.
He has poor muscle tone in both legs but his family are hopeful that with the casts he is going to be getting and possibly tendon snip surgery he will be able to wear splints and be able to take a few steps independently but ultimately if all he can do is stand to transfer independently we will be happy as that means he can live an independent life.
He also has neuropathic bladder and bowels requiring 3 hourly intermittent catheterisation to empty his bladder and bowel washouts alternative days though he is to undergo surgery in Aberdeen to do an ACE procedure which will hopefully fix the problems with his bowels.
He has a A VP shunt which is a small plastic tube that helps drain extra cerebrospinal fluid from the brain. His family are always on high alert that it could block any minute which is life threatening.
But in spite of all that bleakness he is the happiest little dude ever who spreads happiness everywhere he goes and to everyone he meets with his big sister Louise always by his side.
