A little sunshine has entered the lives of a grieving family whose baby daughter born without a windpipe died aged just five days.

Ex-work pals joined dad Leigh Weaver, 33, of Greenfields Croft, Little Neston, for a gruelling charity bike ride in memory of tiny daughter Georgina Louise.

Leigh was happy after he completed the 25-mile Liverpool to Chester route to raise money for Ronald McDonald House at Alder Hey hospital.

Getting back on the saddle for the first time in three years to take part helped to raise more than £4,000 for the self-funded house which provided accommodation at Alder Hey for Leigh and his wife Emma.

It was at the hospital where Georgina died on May 31 from the rare birth defect tracheal agenesis, which meant she was born without a windpipe.

Leigh only got to hold his newborn for the very first time the day before she passed away.

Little Georgie was christened at Alder Hey, which has only had three tracheal agenesis cases in 18 years, in front of 30 family and friends after the consultant said there was nothing they could do for her.

In a show of support for their ex-colleague and friend, staff at Deeside Truck Services in Mold, where Leigh worked for 14 years, decided to take part in the challenge on Sunday to raise money.

Leigh Weaver with his wife Emma before the challenge
Leigh Weaver with his wife Emma before the challenge

Leigh decided to join them in their fundraising efforts saying: “I wouldn’t want the lads to do something for Georgie that I wouldn’t do.

“They’re a great bunch of lads. We used  to go up Llandegla years ago on our bikes but I hadn’t been on one now for three years,” he said.

Leigh admits it’s been a ‘tough situation’ for him, his wife and six-year-old daughter Jessica to deal with.

They could be angry that it was not picked up during scans or there is no ‘miracle cure’, but he says they would prefer to focus on raising awareness of the rare defect in their daughter’s  memory, something they’re doing on Twitter through the hashtag #ThePowerOfGeorgie.

“It’s focusing us and driving us,” he  said.

“When we came home we hid for a day, we didn’t want people to come up and ask us questions.

“But then we thought it would be  better to speak to people and make them aware. You don’t realise how many friends you’ve got until something like this happens.”

Leigh added: “We didn’t hold Georgie until the Thursday and that was after she was born on the Monday and we’d had the christening on Wednesday.

“Family and friends – 30 plus people  – turned up and we’d only given them a few hours notice.”

With Georgie’s condition not immediately apparent during her short life, Leigh says the outcome would not have been so much a shock if they had been prepared for it.

Simon Lee, depot manager at Deeside Truck Services, said: “Leigh worked here for a great number of years. We all know him very well and we talked amongst ourselves about what we could do.

“We knew this was coming up because one of the guys was doing it so we all decided to give it a go.”

To make a donation visit justgiving.com/deeside-scania .