A 12-year-old boy with cerebral palsy from Thornton near Buckingham is raising thousands of pounds for charity by walking one mile a day for 26 days.
Inspired by the late Captain Sir Tom Moore, Harry Smith has already smashed his fundraising target by raising £6,000 so far which will be split between the NHS and Aylesbury’s Lymphoma Action after his mum, Mel, received a diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma in 2007.
Speaking before his challenge started, Harry said: “I want to give back to a charity who help people like my amazing mum. I also wanted to give to the NHS as a thank you for the wonderful work they have done to fight COVID-19 over the last year. It will be a big challenge for me, as I get tired quite easily and can find walking painful after a while, but I am determined to walk the distance each day.”
Although he’s experienced a few problems so far, it seems his challenge is going well and Harry said he’s thrilled with the amount he’s raised to date.
He said “We were originally just going for £1,000 per charity and we’ve just smashed it out the park so it’s quite touching really.”
Mel said she’s been blown away by her son’s selfless act.
She revealed: “His prognosis when he was diagnosed was that he may never walk, may never talk and may never go to mainstream school. He had a big operation about 18 months ago and prior to that he struggled to walk for longer than 30 seconds. For him to be doing this is above and beyond what we ever thought was possible really.”
The man himself said he’d like to carry on fundraising.
He said: “I think I’m just going to carry on going and try and raise money for different kinds of charities.”
Harry’s GoFundMe page can be found at: https://uk.gofundme.com/f/harrys-26-day-marathon
For further details on Lymphoma Action, please visit: https://lymphoma-action.org.uk/
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