January 28, 2016 1.51 pm This story is over 98 months old

Hundreds fill Lincoln Cathedral to say final goodbye to Sophie Robinson

Funeral: Hundreds of well wishers filled Lincoln Cathedral on Thursday, January 28, to pay their final respects to brave Lincoln school girl Sophie Robinson.

Hundreds of well wishers filled Lincoln Cathedral on Thursday, January 28, to pay their final respects to brave Lincoln school girl Sophie Robinson.

As previously reported, Sophie was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2014, aged just 10, after suffering sickness and headaches at school in February that year.

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

She tragically lost her battle with illness on January 12, 2016, aged just 12.

Throughout her chemotherapy, Sophie’s parents Stacy and Ben kept an online diary, documenting her procedures and treatments.

Through her Facebook page, ‘Sophie’s Cancer Journey‘, she raised more than £35,000 for brain tumour research.

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Leading the tributes at the service was Sophie’s auntie Jackie, who described her niece as “completely selfless” and “the most courageous person I’ve ever met.”

Jackie described one occasion when Sophie was playing a game where she had to guess what was written on her card.

The closest she’d got to the correct answer of whale was fish, so her aunt gave her another clue of ‘it’s big, and flops around in the sea’.

To which Sophie replied: “That’s easy, that’s my dad!”

Kieran Ola, who taught Sophie in her final year at Birchwood Junior School, also spoke fondly of his experiences of teaching her, particularly her exasperation at his constant DIY anecdotes, which led her to ask if he could start teaching Maths again.

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

One particularly amusing memory Kieran shared was of a bus trip back from a school trip to Creswell Crags.

Sophie was sat next to her teacher, feigning interest at another one of his stories about fixing up his house, when stopped talking and she looked “like she’d seen a miracle.”

Kieran said: “She was pointing at a B&Q distribution centre. About 20 seconds later, Sophie snapped out of it, and shouted ‘that’s the biggest B&Q I’ve ever seen!’

“Before long, she’d started chanting ‘B&Q, B&Q’ on the bus, with everyone else joining in.

“Cancer robbed us of an infectiously bubbly mind, our community of a champion, and her family of a beautiful little girl.”

Other tributes were said by Birchwood Junior School’s headteacher Tracey Bowman, who described Sophie as “a bright, bubbly girl, with a lovely sense of humour.”

Sophie’s old dance class, the Sandy Gray School of Dance, also performed a moving rendition of the Elton John song ‘Written in the Stars’.

Reverend Philippa White added that it was “a truly awful time”, and that “now is the time to cry.”

Sophie’s legacy will live on in the future thanks to her parents’ plans to buy a caravan in Mablethorpe so terminally ill children and their families can share some precious together.

The name of the caravan, quite fittingly, will be ‘Sophie’s Journey’.

To donate to Sophie Robinson’s fund click here