Kudos to Old Elean, Jess Harding, who has raised more than £500 for the wonderful charity, Make-A-Wish UK!
Jess, who completed her Sixth Form studies this summer, decided to take on the ‘Make-A-Wish Run 57 Miles in August’ challenge to raise awareness and as much money as possible for the charity.
Make-A-Wish grants life-changing wishes for critically ill children and young people. Why 57 miles? This is the number of children and young people who are diagnosed with a critical illness in the UK every single day.
Jess, who joined King’s Ely Prep in Year 5, ended up running 60.3 miles in total during August, and she has raised a fantastic £516 in sponsorship so far!
Jess said: “I saw this challenge advertised on Facebook and having got more into running towards the end of my A-Levels, I decided that it would be great for me to take part, especially considering just how incredible a cause it was. I was shocked to find out that the reasoning behind the 57 miles is because it is that many children who are diagnosed with a critical illness each day in the UK. This is a devastating figure, and I knew that I wanted to do my part to help Make-A-Wish with their goal of alleviating the suffering of as many children with critical illnesses as possible.”
Jess is off to Royal Holloway, University of London this autumn to study English and American Literature.
She said: “I took on the challenge alone, however my friends and family were really supportive, both in terms of sponsoring me and joining in with some of my outings. My mum and brother came out to run with me a few times. I tried to run a couple of miles each day but I sometimes exceeded this when the competition with myself kicked in! I also sometimes split the distance by doing two runs a day, which made it a lot easier to gain mileage. I definitely found it challenging, as I am by no means an experienced runner. However, I did find it easy to get out and do the running knowing that every mile I did was helping towards making a serious difference to a child’s life.”
You can sponsor Jess here: https://socialsync.app/fundraiser/cr-wejd55re?