Entertainment
Ashley Cain trying to keep heart strong for baby Azaylia as he plans daughter’s funeral
Ashley Cain has thrown himself back into keeping fit in a bid to stay busy following the death of his daughter Azaylia.
The Ex On The Beach star, 30, and his girlfriend Safiyya Vorajee, 33, lost their eight-month-old daughter last month after she battled leukaemia.
They devoted their time to caring for their baby after she was sent home from hospital to live out her final days, and the reality star is now filling his spare time by running.
Sharing a picture of himself in exercise clothes on Saturday, he wrote: ‘From nothing for months to 55km in the last 6 days.
‘Trying to keep my head strong and my heart stronger. Forever in my heart champion! #LetsGoChamp.’
Azaylia was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukaemia when she was just eight weeks old.
Ashley and Safiyya are now planning her funeral, with the former footballer admitting he never thought he’d be doing so for his own daughter.
On Thursday, he wrote on Instagram: ‘I always dreaded the first time I’d have to plan a funeral. But I never thought it would be my own child’s funeral.
‘Nothing could ever have prepared me for this. Some days it breaks me and I can’t even bare to do it.’
He continued: ‘I always thought I was tough, but making decisions on how I’m going to bury my baby is enough to bring me to my knees every single time.
‘It’s hard to make sense of anything right now, especially why did it have to happen this way!’
Safiyya shared a selfie of her wearing rainbow pyjamas in honour of her baby girl this week.
She wrote: ‘My days are so empty without you when ever I think of you I ache from head to toe as I miss you so much.
‘I get the biggest lump in my throat and I just want to fall to my knees n cry.
‘But then I think what would Azaylia do ( she would [be] brave, so I hear in my head mummy stay strong be just like me) [sic].’
Azaylia died on April 24 just weeks after doctors told Ashley and Safiyya that the specialist treatment they planned in Singapore wasn’t enough to treat her rare disease.
The couple had tirelessly raised over £1.5million towards the expensive treatment before learning there were no other options left as the cancer had advanced.
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