A year on from her death, let’s talk about Maddy Cusack – and who she really was

There is a sticker on the car outside that offers the first clue this is Maddy Cusack’s old house. ‘MC8’, it says – her initials, the shirt number she wore, and now the name of the charity that has been set up as her legacy.

Inside the front door, her parents, David and Deborah, keep a framed shirt in their hallway from when their daughter played for England’s under-19 team.

Maddy’s room is up two flights of stairs on the top floor. These days, however, the door almost always remains closed. It is too painful, too raw, so the door is usually shut and everything is kept as it was.

And it is heartbreaking. Maddy’s wardrobe is filled with her collection of football shirts. A pile of clothes is stacked neatly on the side, washed and ironed by Deborah on the day before their world was turned upside down.

A pennant from an England game is attached to the bedroom wall and so is the lanyard that gave Maddy access-all-areas at Bramall Lane, Sheffield United’s stadium.

Maddy was proud of that lanyard when she took her job as a commercial executive for the club where she was sometimes called ‘Miss Sheffield United’, as their longest-serving player. Everyone says the same: she had fallen in love with the club and the city. In happier times, her family remember she would walk in from work sometimes and announce her presence with a shout of “Up the Blades”.

Tomorrow, it is exactly one year since Maddy took her own life, aged 27, and if you have followed this story, you will understand why it is a tragedy not just for her family but the sport as a whole, and women’s football in particular.

Maybe you are aware it has led to a Football Association investigation to examine the circumstances surrounding her death.