{"id":1576,"date":"2026-09-22T15:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportprocess.co.uk\/?p=1576"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:47:10","slug":"maddy-cusack-remembering-sunshine-three-years-on-from-death-of-sheffield-united-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportprocess.co.uk\/?p=1576","title":{"rendered":"Maddy Cusack: Remembering ‘sunshine’, three years on from death of Sheffield United player ."},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Maddy Cusack: Remembering ‘sunshine’, three years on from death of Sheffield United player .<\/p>\n

Olivia Cusack says her sister, the late Maddy Cusack, is on her mind every single day and she is determined to ensure her \u201clegacy lives on\u201d three years after the former England youth international midfielder\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

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Olivia, together with family and friends of Maddy, walked 29 miles from Bramall Lane, Sheffield United\u2019s home, to their family\u2019s home in Horsley, near Derby, on Saturday to raise funds and awareness. Maddy\u2019s loved ones are still enduring a \u201cfrustrating and confusing\u201d wait for answers about the circumstances surrounding her death on 20 September 2023.<\/p>\n

An inquest into the death of the 27-year-old Sheffield United player was adjourned again in July and has been scheduled to resume on 7 December after fresh evidence came to light. Cusack, a former England under-19 international, was the first player to appear in 100 matches for the Sheffield United women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

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Olivia says the walk on Saturday, \u201cBringing Maddy Home\u201d, was motivated by some of the evidence during the inquest. \u201cAfter the inquest we wanted to bring her home from Bramall Lane, back to our family home,\u201d she says. \u201cMany people know Maddy as the professional football player and the name on the back of her shirt, the number, the colours she wore, the club she was associated with.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut I felt in the inquest it was lost that she was a person, she wasn\u2019t an object that we were discussing. She\u2019s a person, she\u2019s a family member of ours [and] a person that\u2019s sometimes been lost within the chaos surrounding her death really, so that\u2019s the notion behind the walk. To claim her back, bring her home and protect her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A minute\u2019s applause will be held before kick-off on Sunday at the Women\u2019s Super League 2 fixture between Newcastle and Sheffield United. Discussing that anniversary, Olivia says: \u201cWe miss her the same every day, as I will on Sunday. The anniversary is always something that creeps up on us. It\u2019s very emotional and it\u2019s a time where we just reflect, but we do so much throughout the year so she really is at the heart of pretty much every single day. Not a day goes by where we don\u2019t think about her.<\/p>\n

There can be days when you just feel absolutely drained and you know you don\u2019t quite know what the right thing to do is, but I think the way that we just get through it is that we remember who she was as a person. She loved her life, she loved trying new things and just enjoying life\u2019s simple pleasures, we try and embody that on every day, not just the anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do encourage people to, as difficult as it can be sometimes, share the photos, share the memories, bring her up in conversation wherever you can, talk about her, and between all of us, you know her legacy will live on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The family have already endured eight full days of evidence, after the hearing began belatedly on 29 June, but the discovery of additional documents led the proceedings to be paused until December. The coroner apologised to the family for yet another delay. The case had been set previously to start being heard on 5 January 2026 after additional postponements in 2025.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been really difficult,\u201d Olivia said of the delays. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that any of us anticipated to happen. It\u2019s very confusing and it can be very frustrating, the length of time it\u2019s taken, it can be difficult to work that out and to know how you should be feeling and the process of it. However, we know that for the right outcome it has to be taken seriously. They need the time to come together and really get an outcome.<\/p>\n

It feels as though she can\u2019t be at peace until it\u2019s finished. And I do feel that\u2019s quite upsetting to think about and to work through. It needs to come to a conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Olivia said she would \u201cchannel Maddy\u2019s energy\u201d during the 29-mile walk on Saturday, when a group of about 15 family and friends travelled in the reverse direction to another fundraising walk in February 2024 from Pride Park to Bramall Lane.<\/p>\n\n

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