Four mums take to the sky for brave Luca

Dubai: Four Dubai mums skydived 3,962 metres yesterday morning to raise awareness for little Luca, who was struck with a life-threatening blood disease and lost both legs.

In January, Luca Williams, a three-year-old Welsh boy, was struck with meningococcal septicaemia, also known as blood poisoning, which has only a three per cent survival rate.

Miraculously he survived but lost both legs and has suffered massive skin, tissue and muscle loss across his arms and shoulders. Since then his bravery in the face of this terrible disease has inspired thousands of people everywhere, including the four mums Annah Lewis, Rebecca Byrne, Jane Gammage and Jilly Witcomb, Lewis, a childhood friend of Luca's father,

Mohammad Syed was the one who brought the group together for this feat.

"We were thinking of Luca all the way up there. As they were taking photos and videos of us we were raising our hands the whole time, which said "4 mums for Luca" and that was all I was thinking about because I would have never done it if it was not for him." Byrne told Gulf News.

She said that when Lewis called her in March and told her that she wants to help Luca, she suggested that they sky dive to raise awareness "Annah has been trying to talk me into skydiving, as she has done it before, and I kept telling her I would do it one day."

Family and friends wearing shirts with the slogan "4 mums for Luca", carrying signs with the same slogan and "4 Luca" inked with black marker on their palms, gathered in Sky Dive Dubai to support the four brave mums and their cause.

Nigel, Witcomb's husband, said that he thought what was his wife was doing is very brave.

"We have done it once before and I was panicking." Lewis and Witcomb have had previous sky diving experiences, but for Byrne and Gammage it was a completely new experience.

For more on ‘For Luca' campaign visit www.justgiving.com/forlucadubai; On Facebook: www.facebook.com/forluca1 and Twitter: @for_luca