Children across Northampton honour Azaylia Cain and her cancer battle with poignant balloon release

A group of Northampton school and nursery children has honoured the daughter of a former footballer and Ex On The Beach star whose fight against terminal cancer has touched the hearts of many around the world.

Children and staff from Year 6 at Boughton Primary School and Caring Kindergarten in Moulton released orange balloons at 1.30pm yesterday (April 23) to show their support to Azaylia, who is battling a rare form of leukemia at less than a year old.

The touching tribute was organised by a parent of a Boughton student who has been following the family’s story on social media for months, who only came up with the idea to release balloons at the start of this week.

Shaz Iranpour, the organiser, said: “I was hoping this would be a happy ending and that everything would be OK, but it didn’t turn out that way.

“Because I’ve been following since the beginning, I feel connected and I feel a bond towards their journey.

“As I have three kids of my own who are all young, I think I feel it a bit more too.

“It’s just heart-wrenching, but I saw all the tributes that are being sent into her parents and I thought it would be nice to do something from Northampton and what better way than to get the kids involved.

“We want to wish the family all our love and our prayers.”

The 28 school children who took part let off two balloons each and the 40 nursery children let of one.

With staff also involved, around 100 balloons were released at the same time to show support for Azaylia.

Jodie Sadler, deputy headteacher at Boughton Primary School, added: “'When one of our Boughton parents contacted me to expressing that she was organising something to raise awareness of the rare Leukemia that Azaylia Cain is fighting, I thought it was a lovely selfless act - which my class would love to be a part of.

“The act of raising awareness and showing solidarity to a family who are going through such a heartbreaking time perfectly shows one of our school values - compassion.”

Many other moments of support have also been shared with the family from people and places across the globe, including the London Eye lighting up orange.

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