Ashley Cain speaks out about the moment his beloved eight-month-old daughter Azaylia died in his arms in a heartbreaking interview.
Two years on from her tragic death, the Ex On The Beach star, 32, reflects on his baby girl’s brave battle with acute myeloid leukaemia.
Ashley describes how he watched his daughter go from a ‘ray of sunshine’ to crying blood from her eyes as the rare and aggressive cancer took hold.
Speaking on the Original Penguin X Campaign Against Living Miserably Under The Surface podcast, Ashley talks about Azaylia’s final moments and how she fought until the very end.
Ashley and his former partner Safiyya Vorajee said they were ‘living the dream’ when they welcomed their daughter, but two months in she had a devastating diagnosis.
Tragic: Ashley Cain speaks out about the moment his beloved eight-month-old daughter Azaylia died in his arms in a heartbreaking interview
Painful: Two years on from her tragic death, the Ex On The Beach star, 32, reflects on his baby girl’s brave battle with acute myeloid leukaemia
‘The first time I held Azaylia in my arms, I thought I had everything. All these things that I was searching for in my life before, couldn’t come close or equate to this,’ he says.
‘But I was living the dream for two months, before I found out that Azaylia had AML leukaemia.’
‘Do you know how hard it is going to sleep every night, scared to close your eyes because if you wake up, she might be gone. Do you know how difficult that is?
‘Do you know how difficult it is seeing your previous little girl who is a ray of sunshine, getting wires put in her, getting chemotherapy.
‘If her chemotherapy was going for three hours, I used to hold her for three hours, just so she knew I was there. That’s difficult.’
Ashley says he would have rather been ‘tortured for the rest of my life’ than have watched Azaylia suffer the way she did.
The couple’s daughter spent the majority of her life in hospital, undergoing four rounds of chemotherapy and stem cell treatment.
Despite efforts from around the world and a treatment in Singapore, pharmaceutical companies could not release the life-saving drugs needed to beat his daughter Azaylia’s battle.
Sad: In April 2021, the couple were told Azaylia only had a few days to live as they discovered tumours in her stomach, her spleen, her liver and her kidneys, she died later that month
Brave: Speaking on Original Penguin X Campaign Against Living Miserably Under The Surface podcast, Ashley talks about Azaylia’s final moments and how she fought until the very end
In April 2021, the couple were told Azaylia only had a few days to live as they discovered tumours in her stomach, her spleen, her liver and her kidneys, in addition to tumours in her brain, and she tragically died later that month.
Ashley says: ‘I got told we can take Azaylia home now, there’s nothing else we can do, and I’m like “what do you mean?”, they said: “There is nothing we can do. She can’t fly to Singapore to get the treatment that you wanted, she’s got tumours in her brain, she’s got tumours in her lungs, she’s got tumours in her stomach, she’s got tumours in her spleen, she’s got tumours everywhere. And the cancer is growing with the chemotherapy. There’s nothing we can do.
‘So take her home, enjoy it, enjoy the last couple of days. I was like “what are you talking about?”
Ashley tells the podcast – designed for men to help men talk openly about their emotions and hidden emotions – that he had sleepless nights and feared of falling asleep in case his daughter wasn’t there in the morning.
‘How can I take her home? Because I don’t know how she’s going to pass, if she’s going to bleed from the inside,’ he says.
A timeline of Azaylia’s six-month leukaemia battle
October 2020: Ashley emotionally revealed his daughter had been diagnosed with a ‘rare and aggressive’ form of leukaemia, which he described as an ‘uphill battle’.
Heartbreaking: Ashley emotionally revealed his daughter had been diagnosed with a ‘rare and aggressive’ form of leukaemia in October
Azaylia was turned away by doctors three times and prescribed laxatives and a nasal spray when her breathing was impeded, shortly before her diagnosis.
By the end of the month, the brave child faced her second surgery and 16th chemotherapy-related treatment in less than two weeks.
November 2020: Azaylia’s hair started to fall out just weeks after she was diagnosed.
Doctors informed Ashley and his family that the tot needed a bone marrow transplant and blood donation.
Due to her Caribbean, Burmese, Indian and English background, the footballer said it was very difficult to find a match for a transplant.
Azaylia was brought home for a few days before her second round of chemotherapy.
December 2020: 80,000 people became stem cell donors 48 hours after Ashley appealed for the public’s help.
So sad: Azaylia’s hair started to fall out just weeks after she was diagnosed in November
January 2021: The TV star confirmed a stem cell donor had been found for his baby daughter Azaylia.
She received her stem cell transplant but her cancer sadly returned following a third round of chemotherapy.
February 2021: Azaylia responded well to her stem cell treatment and doctors were impressed with ‘how strong she was’.
She underwent further surgery to discover whether her leukaemia had gone. Later in the month, doctors revealed her cancer had returned.
March 2021: They were told there were ‘very few options’ to help the baby’s condition before she had another bone marrow test. She relapsed by the end of the month and underwent her fourth round of chemotherapy.
Ashley surpassed his target goal of £1million after he set up a GoFundMe to pay for life-saving treatment for his daughter Azaylia.
Heartbreaking: Healthcare professionals revealed Azaylia only had a few days to live as they discovered tumours all over her body
The former Ex On The Beach star took to social media to ask fans for help in donating, explaining the treatment his daughter needed is available in Singapore.
Ashley described the treatment, CAR-T therapy, as ‘the only option to save Azaylia’s life’ and said he and partner Safiyya may have to fly out in a matter of weeks, adding it will take a minimum of one year.
Celebrities such as former TOWIE star Kate Ferdinand, Love Island’s Molly-Mae Hague and PrettyLittleThing founder Umar Kamani all donated.
Despite efforts from around the world, pharmaceutical companies could not release the life-saving drugs needed to beat his daughter Azaylia’s battle.
April 2020: Healthcare professionals revealed Azaylia only had a few days to live as they discovered tumours in her stomach, her spleen, her liver and her kidneys, in addition to tumours in her brain.
Her parents bathed her in the hospital for a final time before they returned home.
They marked her turning eight months old by having moulds made of her feet, and Azaylia was met with support from the London Underground and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
She received life-prolonging transfusion after her condition caused profuse bleeding and public figures joined the nationwide clap held in her honour.
Azaylia was nominated for a Pride of Britain award and had a plane draw a heart in the sky for her.
The tot was put on oxygen to aid her sleep, and struggled to open her eyes due to swelling.
Scam artists set up fake Facebook pages in her name, with Ashley admitting: ‘We feel really sad it has come to this’.
Azaylia returned to hospital for another platelet transfusion a few days before she died.
The influencer’s ‘fragile’ daughter stopped breathing and suffered seizures before Ashley confirmed her death.
‘In the end, she started bleeding from her eyes, when she was crying blood was coming out of her eyes, everything. When I talk about perspective, imagine all you want is to know that your daughter can pass away peacefully in your arms. I was just asking God; “let her go peacefully and let her be in my arms”. And that’s how she went.
He adds: ‘When you count the last breath of your little Princess, every other decision that you have to make in your life becomes relatively simple.’
Ashley says talking about Azaylia helps him with the grieving process.
‘Vulnerability isn’t weakness; it’s strength. You have to be honest and you have to be truthful. Not so much for everyone else, but for yourself,’ he says.
‘I think talking is great because it’s a great first step in truly being able to understand your problems and accept them, because you’re prepared to tell someone else.
‘I think the powerful thing about it is that the person you’re talking to is probably going to be going through their own problems, so that’s not only helping you but probably helping the person that you’re talking to as well.
‘There’s a lot of people out there in my amazing community who are great people, but who are probably struggling just like me. We’re in this together, and together we are stronger. And the sooner you realise it, the better it will be.’
If you have been affected by anything in this article and need support call the Samaritans on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org.