For the first year of her life Grace Bradburn seemed like a healthy, happy little girl.

The beloved second child of Stuart and Natalie was just learning to walk and talk when she contracted chicken pox.

Her parents assumed she would fight the disease and bounce back to her normal self.

But for Grace this was never to be.

On her first birthday the illness got so severe that she was taken into hospital.

After showing no improvement, she was transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, where despite the best care and technology available, she died on April 24, 2007, one month after her birthday.

Her death certificate recorded she had died from chicken pox, but research later established she had an extremely rare genetic problem which prevented her immune system from working.

Grace’s grief-stricken family vowed to do something positive to help other sick children and to keep their daughter’s memory alive.

Since her death, Stuart, 35, a former pupil of Loose Primary and Maidstone Grammar Schools, and Natalie have raised £70,000 for the charity Cosmic (Children of St Mary’s Intensive Care), which raises money for the intensive care unit where Grace was treated.

The unit, which treats children from all over the south east, looks after about 500 desperately sick children every year.

The two, who live in Reading, have been joined in their fund raising by family members including Stuart’s parents Clive and Sue Bradburn, of Waldron Drive, Maidstone, and brother Michael, also an ex-Maidstone Grammar School boy.

Clive said: “Between them they have taken and organised triathlons, walks, runs, cycle rides and a host of other events.

“I have never been so proud of my children. They have amazed me with what they have achieved.”

Now Clive’s local community are getting involved.

Phil and Debbie Glover, landlord and landlady of the Walnut Tree pub in Loose, have made Cosmic their charity of the year.

With the help of regulars and the Shepherd Neame brewery, the pub has raised hundreds of pounds in Grace’s name.

On New Year’s Day, the pub football team will take on the bouncers of Maidstone for a charity game on the recreation area behind the pub.

Clive said: “It is brilliant. We are so touched they are supporting this charity.

“I am not sure who will win the game as the bouncers would have had a late night on New Year’s Eve, but then the pub team might be nursing some sore heads.”

The game will kick off at noon, to be followed by refreshments and fund-raising fun at the pub.

The football team and friends, with the help of a local recording company, have also produced a fund-raising CD single.

Clive said: “The song You’ll Never Walk Alone was chosen because of its relationship with soccer and the more emotional aspect of moving on with one’s lives, as Stuart and Natalie and their family have had to.”