Ashley Cain takes on risky challenge to keep daughter Azaylia's memory alive

Ashley Cain was, as he puts it, a Billy Big Bananas enjoying the playboy lifestyle – until the loss of his daughter changed everything. Azaylia died from acute leukaemia aged eight months in April 2021.

Since then the former Coventry City player and reality TV star has transformed his life, pushing himself to the absolute limit physically and mentally to raise money and awareness for The Azaylia Foundation.

His latest challenge, kayaking the Yukon 1000, is his riskiest yet. Billed as the world’s longest paddling race, entrants must complete the gruelling 1,000-mile course along the Yukon River, from Canada to the Arctic Circle, in 10 days

“There’s a real chance of me not coming back,” says Ashley, matter-of-factly. “I have to prepare myself for that.”

Leaving on July 14, Ashley, 32, and his training partner will kayak up to 125 miles a day.

Carrying all their own food, clothes and shelter they will be on the water for an average of 18 hours a day.

They risk hypothermia, capsizing and encounters with wolves and grizzly bears.

“If you fall in a river that’s two or three miles wide you aren’t really getting out,” says Ashley. “If you fall in the Arctic Circle and you do get out, you’ve got 20 minutes to hypothermia.

“You have an hour to pitch your tent and eat your food because you are in wolf or grizzly bear territory. If you get attacked there isn’t much you can do.

“People drop out, people fail, people don’t make it. Obviously I don’t want to go there and not come back.

“But I honestly believe I will be all right until Azaylia wants me back. If she wants me back and needs me back, I’m happy to go.

“I love my daughter that much that I effectively put myself through hell every single day to make her proud. And to show to people that no matter what you have been through, there is light.”

With his pink hair, tattoos, diamond earrings and ripped physique, it would be easy to have preconceived ideas about Ashley.

But he’s hugely eloquent and at times very emotional, breaking down when he talks about losing his daughter and holding her in his arms.

He admits that writing about his “Billy Big Banana” days for his new book, Strong, was tough. Ashley, who played for Coventry City from 2008-2010 left football in 2012 after he ruptured his Achilles tendon. He went on to appear on reality shows like MTV’s Ex On The Beach and Take Me Out.

He also enjoyed all the trappings that came with that – girls, nightclubs, fame and the thought that he had “made it”.

“That was the most difficult part of the book – I didn’t care about it,” says Ashley. “Ex-professional footballer, so what?
Ex-reality TV star, so what?

“What I was doing was faking a lot. There was a facade, to climb the ladder. But when you are in the pits, it’s very hard to survive if you are still lying to yourself. That’s what changed about me. For once in my life I was true to myself.

“Not only was fatherhood the missing piece that made me feel complete, but that little girl allowed me to be the person I wanted to be.”

Azaylia was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukaemia at just eight weeks old.

Ashley and former partner Safiyya Vorajee, 35, did everything they could to get her the best care possible, including crowdfunding £1.5million for specialist treatment in Singapore.

“We tried everything to save her life,” says Ashley, tearfully. “There wasn’t an option that we didn’t explore. When she was going through
surgery and coming back every time fighting, she gave me strength. She was heroic, an inspiration.”

After she died Ashley turned to alcohol to numb the pain, until: “One morning I woke up ashamed of the man that I was.

“I was embarrassed that she was watching down on me. That was a huge turning point.”

Setting up The Azaylia Foundation with Safiyya gave him a whole new focus.

Each week four children die from cancer in the UK. The foundation’s aim is to increase research.

Last year it donated more than £700,000 to Great Ormond Street Hospital, Oxford University, Birmingham University and Birmingham Chil-dren’s Hospital, where Azaylia was treated. There is also a PHD Fund for research in her name.

Ashley, who is based in the Midlands, continues: “Childhood cancer receives under three per cent of cancer research funding, which means no new talent is going into the space, no new research is being done, no new cures are being found. For me no child should go through what Azaylia went through. And I really don’t want any parents to feel what I feel.”

To raise money Ashley has done “eight or nine marathons in the last two years”, a 109-mile run in one go from Coventry to London’s Trafalgar Square, a 1,100-mile cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats, climbed the Three Peaks and cycled 1,800 miles from London to Paris to Geneva to Rome, through the Alps.

On Instagram his videos show the real pain he goes through – and the 1,000-mile Yukon trip will push him again to his absolute limit.

It’s clear he is hugely driven and wears his heart on his sleeve. And he wants to encourage men in particular to be open with their feelings: “I get thousands of messages a day from people who are suicidal, going through something, stressed, depressed, anxious. The reason I keep being vocal is to help others. The circle of grief never gets smaller, I just grow stronger around it.”

And he is not concerned about what people think about him and his challenges.

“It offends me when I get some of the negativity that I get. None of it’s for me because it’s horrible for me. I can’t say I enjoy it because there is so much pain involved. But it’s not going to change my path and what I’m doing.”

As for relationships, his playboy past is behind him. “I’ve no time for romance, it’s not like I shied away from it in the past! I can’t commit the time. I don’t know if I would want to subject anyone else to that right now.”

He’s still friendly with Safiyya – they split a year after Azaylia’s death. “Saf gave me the greatest gift I’ve ever had. We’ve built a bond that is unbreakable because of what we’ve been through together.

“We will always have this mutual goal of fighting for her and the foundation.”

When Azaylia was first diagnosed, Ashley used his social media platform to raise funds.

He was supported by Rio and Kate Ferdinand, Molly-Mae Hague and even The Rock. He is now using his “influencer” status for doing good.

“I had this following and I didn’t know what it was for. Then all of a sudden this situation happened and I realised I can make a difference.

“When you have that feeling for the first time in your life, knowing who you are, knowing you have resources to be able to do something about it, that’s a pretty big responsibility.

“I’m not perfect, but for the first time in my life as a man I know who I am.

“My daughter’s life and her passing will not be in vain.”

• Strong by Ashley Cain (Bonnier Books Ltd, £22) is available to order from expressbookshop.com. Or call Express Bookshop 0203 1763832. Free UK P&P on online orders over £25