THE mother of Skye Hall has told how her son’s memory has kept the family going as they prepare to welcome a new baby and celebrate smashing a world record.

Five-year-old Skye, of Abingdon, died in August last year as a result of radio-chemo neurotoxicity, having battled a brain tumour for a year.

Inspired by Skye’s positivity, parents Sally and Andrew Hall and younger brother Jesse, three, launched Loom to the Moon, a campaign to raise money for Blue Skye Thinking – a charity founded in Skye’s memory to fund alternative treatments for child cancer.

Yesterday, Loom to the Moon’s bid to create the world’s largest loom band reached its goal, smashing the Guinness World Record.

Mrs Hall, 37 – who is expecting a baby next month – thanked the Oxford Mail and its readers for supporting the charity throughout its first year of existence.

She said: “After all the laying and tying loom bands together, my knees are in bits.

“The whole thing has been unbelievable. The amount of bands we have received was over 30,000 metres. We had a physicist calculate that the force generated from these loom bands could catapult Skye’s first loom band in to space.”

The previous record for the world’s longest loom band was 1,473.90 metres, but Skye’s band smashed that by 8.5 times over, using a whopping 12,529.40 metres’ worth of loom bands.

It was laid out at unit two in Abingdon Business Park and will remain there until 5pm today so that the general public can view it.

More than 60 people needed three days to lay out loom bands for the world record attempt, which took two hours to measure.

A tearful Mrs Hall said: “I think it’s fair now to come clean and say I have barely left the house in a year.

“Most people I saw this week helping with this I have not seen since Skye died.

“Not only has Skye left himself an incredible legacy and raised over £200,000 for research but he has got me out of the house.

“I feel so proud that he has not only helped other children, but he has helped me to try and continue to live my life without him.”

A party will be held today between 11am to 5pm, at unit two of Abingdon Business Park for the public to mark Blue Skye Thinking’s first birthday.

While Skye had cancer, he died from radio-chemo neurotoxicity, where healthy cells in his brain and spinal cord were damaged by the traditional treatments of radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

Loom to the Moon was inspired by Skye’s love of making loom bands while receiving treatment in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

The staff at the treatment centre would joke they were sending him to the moon every time they locked the door and counted down for the pressurisation to start.