A pregnant Yorkshire woman’s life has been filled with “shock”, sorrow and tears after her boyfriend died after collapsing at Goals five-a-side football centre in Leeds.
Leah Hayes, 24, has spoken about the tragic passing of Jamie Harper, 34, whose child she is expecting. The Castleford man died in Leeds General Infirmary just before 1.41pm on Sunday, September 11.
Jamie had been playing a charity match at Goals, near Kirkstall Road, raising money for children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent. He worked as a chef for Wetherspoons at The Winter Seam in Xscape and the company organised the annual event.
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Leah had been dating Jamie for 10 months and says he was “so excited” to learn he would be becoming a father, after finding out about a month ago. He moved in to Leah and her daughter Evelyn’s home last Thursday and developed a really strong relationship with the four-year-old, and they became a little family.
Breaking into tears, Leah said: “He was the love of my life and he was going to be a dad. He’d just moved in. He was like a dad to my daughter, she’d started calling him dad.
“He kept saying he was so happy and so excited to become a dad. He was so excited, he’d wanted kids for ages.
“He was going to get the baby Castleford Tigers outfits, football shirts and god knows what else. He was an amazing dad to my daughter, the best dad she ever had. Having Jamie was a big part of her life.”
Leah found out the tragic news after her mum had found out about it on Facebook, with tributes pouring in for the popular 34-year-old. Leah’s mum rushed to meet her, favouring to break the dreadful news in person.
Leah said: “I screamed and I said that it was a lie and my daughter got really scared. So they had to get her away from me.
“I think I must have cried for about an hour before I calmed down.
“Then they took me to his parent’s house to go see them. They were in shock, we didn’t really know what to say. They didn’t really know how to respond to it. I’m still just really in shock.”
Leah says she will always remember Jamie for how kind and good natured he was to her and Evelyn. Leah said: “He’d help anyone that he could. He listened to me and he cared for my daughter and I’ve not had that before.
“I’ve not had someone nice in my life before. He was interested in what I had to say and all he wanted was a family. He was so happy to fill that role in my life.”
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