On Christmas Day 2020, Emily was thrilled to see that hints to her husband for an exercise bike had worked. Like plenty of us, she wanted to take the New Year as an opportunity to get fitter, so she set herself the challenge of the Tour de France from her living room. 

With 3500km to cycle in 365 days, Emily needed motivation.

“I have to do around 9km a day! I’d actually just finished fundraising for a friend of mine and I thought I’d do another fundraiser to keep on track. I thought if I earned 10p every kilometre I’d get to £350.”

Emily decided to fundraise for The Laura Centre, having been inspired by one of her students. 

In 2015, Kian Gill, a 15 year old student from Lutterworth College, was tragically killed in a car accident on his last day of Year 11.

“It was a really horrendous time. I remember the kids had their exams on Monday, and their best friend had died only days before. It was a really tragic accident.”

At The Laura Centre, we supported Kian’s family after his death like many others across Leicester who have sadly been bereaved. 

In memory of her student, Emily set off on her Tour de Living Room, friends and family behind her in support. But what happened next, no one could have predicted.

Back in November, Emily received a few strange tweets. Her followers were growing, and her mentions were building up. She noticed that the owner of ‘Cloud 9’, an American professional esports organisation, had followed her. And in December, C9Perkz, a League of Legends player for Cloud 9, had followed her too.

“I didn’t quite realise what had happened until I put two and two together. Cloud 9 was due to play a game and I was mistaken for C9Perkz, seeing as our Twitter handles were so similar. An esports journalist replied to the tweet, and it picked up some attention.”

Before Emily knew it, she was the star of the League of Legends gaming community, second only to her guinea pigs.

“It turned out that one of the other players on C9Perkz’s team was called Fudge, as is one of my guinea pigs! People couldn’t believe that there was a Fudge and Perkz in some other capacity.”

Emily’s profile drew the attention of a League of Legends stream. They had been inspired by her story of Kian and donated $500 each.

In the weeks following, what began as a £350 fundraiser soon exceeded every one of Emily’s expectations. 

As of 2022, Emily has fundraised over £6,000 for The Laura Centre with the support of the Cloud 9 gaming community.

“I want to say a huge thank you to the League of Legends community. They’ve been so welcoming and so supportive. They’ve sponsored me in memory of a young man who I cared an awful lot about. They’ve reminded me what it feels like to be part of something special.”

Emily’s story inspired all of us at The Laura Centre. And if Kian could see his GCSE Physics teacher now, we can only imagine how proud he’d be.

If you’d like to support our vital bereavement services, explore the ways in which you can fundraise for and donate to The Laura Centre.