MÖTLEY CRÜE frontman Vince Neil shared a photo of his late daughter Skylar via Instagram earlier today, writing in an accompanying caption, "miss you", followed by a halo emoji. In the picture, Skylar , who is wearing an outfit covered in peace signs, is sitting on Vince 's shoulders.
Skylar died of cancer in August 1995 at the age of four. Her death led Neil to found the Skylar Neil Memorial Fund , which has raised millions of dollars for children's cancer research. Neil was married to Skylar 's mother, Sharise Ruddell , from 1987 until 1993.
In April 1995, Skylar was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor, a kidney cancer affecting children. She underwent six operations, plus extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments during the next four months but could not beat the disease.
In the MÖTLEY CRÜE memoir "The Dirt" , Neil speaks of Skylar 's cancer, describing how her body was "attached to all those tubes and machines."
According to Neil , the tumor weighed six and half pounds. The singer revealed in painful detail that "that's how much Skylar had weighed when she was born… I had never seen anything like it before: it was the face of evil. It lay spread out in a metal pan, a nacreous mess of shit."
In October 1995, Neil told People magazine that seeing a child die of cancer "is something no parent should have to go through. More than that, I wish no child ever had to go through it.
"If you've never gone through this, it's hard to know what you're supposed to feel," he added. "I think of Skylar every day. I know someday the loss won't hurt as much as it does now. But I loved Skylar very much, and that will never go away."
Two years after Skylar 's death, Neil settled his differences with MÖTLEY CRÜE and rejoined the band.
