The parents of a Fife toddler who died suddenly have watched her name fly high after she captured the hearts of tens of thousands of people.
Two-year-old Edie Murphy died last October and, amid the grief of family and friends, a campaign emerged to have a Boeing 787 named after her as a tribute to her cheerful nature.
The aircraft took off on its maiden flight from Manchester Airport on Saturday morning bound for Mexico, watched by Edie’s parents Cheryl and Tom and nine-month-old sister Annie.
More than 130,000 people voted for Edie, from Kirkcaldy, in the competition to name holiday firm Thomson’s new Dreamliner, after the Fly High Edie campaign went viral.
Ahead of the emotional visit, Cheryl said: “The people who go on that plane tomorrow or in the future may not know why the plane is called Edie or her special story but our beautiful girl’s name is on a plane that’s taking families off on holidays to make their own very special memories.
“One thing you really struggle with when you lose a child is that you are never going to have anything new of that child but the plane campaign started the day after Edie’s funeral and it has given us a really special new memory of her.
“The plane will go round the world with Edie’s name on it to places that Tom and I will never go to and would never have been able to take Edie to ourselves.
“It’s something just for her.”
Edie died last October in Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children, a week after being rushed to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy suffering convulsions.
It later emerged she had a rare form of epilepsy called hemiconvulsion hemiplegia syndrome, which is undetectable until a seizure occurs.
Following her death a family friend entered Edie’s name into the Thomson competition and the Fly High Edie campaign was launched.
When she won Cheryl said: “When this started we never imagined it would ever get this big and in our minds we would have been happy if it had reached 500 people, never mind over 130,000.”
A Thomson Airways spokeswoman said: “Edie will now fly high to long-haul destinations across the globe.”
Tom and Cheryl, who previously worked at Fife Council, now live in Leeds, where they had been due to move the day Edie fell ill.
They, family and friends have embarked on a series of fundraisers for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation in memory of Edie.
Tom ran Sunday’s Sheffield half marathon and he is also to run the Leeds half marathon and Great North Run.