Team Rose to run the Leeds 10K

Team Rose

Sue O’Leary Hall, along with friends Jane, Susannah, and Collette will all be taking on the Leeds 10K together this Sunday in memory of Sue’s four-year-old daughter, Rose.

Born in 2019, Sue and her wife Katie were told at their 20-week scan that Rose had an interrupted aortic arch, a terminal heart defect and a condition which affects just one in 50,000 people.

Rose underwent multiple rounds of open-heart surgery during her lifetime at the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Leeds General Infirmary.  In August of last year, Rose went through what surgeons hoped would be the final surgical procedure to repair her heart. Although initially the operation appeared to have been a success, Rose contracted an infection two weeks later.  Though she fought as hard as she could, her heart was too damaged to allow her to recover. Rose died the day before she should have started school.

Teaming up with the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, Sue and Katie are now setting up Rose's Library for children and their families in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.  This electronic library will provide digital books for children and their families undergoing treatment and hospital stays in the unit. Sue, along with her friends, will be taking on the 10K to get Rose’s Library off the ground at LGI.

We caught up with the team ahead of event day on Sunday.

“Rose went underwent three rounds of Open-Heart Surgery: the first at 3 days old, the next at 10 months and the last in August 2023.  She overcame some pretty horrific complications over her four years, including a stroke, seizures, and paralysis down her left side, regaining virtually a full range of movement a few months later. Her indomitable spirit could not be suppressed - Rose was a proper Leeds girl!

During Rose's time in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Leeds General Infirmary, Sue and her wife, Katie, would read Rose her favourite stories to keep her spirits up.

The day before Rose died, Sue and Katie invited friends to record a favourite story on their phones and send them over to play to Rose, so she could hear the voices of everyone who loved her.

Sue and Katie have now teamed up with the Children's Heart Surgery Fund to create an electronic library for the children and their families in PICU at Leeds General Infirmary so they can enjoy stories together during some of the most frightening and stressful times of their lives. As Sue says, "Stories are perhaps the ultimate means of escape into a different world of adventure, excitement and hope. And this library will be Rose's lasting legacy."

So, if you can spare a couple of quid to provide some moments of hope and fun and lightness for a child and their family who are having a pretty rubbish time, that would be brilliant.”

Andy McNally, the Head of Marketing at Children’s Heart Surgery Fund said:

“We are incredibly grateful to Sue, Katie and family for devising Rose’s Library in her memory. Being able to escape into a world of stories will mean so much to future families while they are in critical care. We all know the comfort that fantastic tales can bring, so please help us turn this incredible notion into a reality.”

Good luck team! We look forward to welcoming you all across the finish line on the Headrow on Sunday!

To support Sue’s fundraiser for the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, please click here