Eight-year-old completes charity walk and raises over £600 for Sheffield Children's Hospital

Eight-year-old Phoebe Green, a pupil at Mosborough Primary School, took on the challenge to walk 105 miles – the same distance as four marathons – in the six weeks between January 10 and February 21.

Like many children across the country, the young fundraiser from Halfway has missed a significant amount of school over the last year and faced some very difficult times during the pandemic particularly from a mental health point of view so wanted to do something positive while in lockdown.

She had hoped to keep walking until she could return to the classroom but with Covid restrictions still in place and the school reopening date now scheduled for March 8, she instead finished the challenge with a final walk up to the gates of Mosborough Primary, completing 106.5 miles in total.

Phoebe’s mum Nicola said: “We are so proud of her and are glad she has been able to raise money for the children’s hospital. She is going to take a well deserved rest for a week before deciding on her next challenge.”

And it may be a case of watch this space, as Nicola said that during the walking challenge her daughter noticed rubbish strewn around her local area and had mentioned perhaps conducting her own litter pick in an effort to clean it up.

“We were walking and there was just so much plastic rubbish around. Phoebe was absolutely mad about it, she said it was absolutely disgusting and that it was all going to go into the sea and ruin the planet,” she said.

"She decided the next thing we’d do was come with bin bags and pick it all up.”

Luckily, Phoebe hasn’t had to use the services at Sheffield Children’s Hospital – other than for a suspected broken finger – but decided on the charity after hearing about the exceptional work the staff do to care for other sick children.

She originally set out with the intention of raising just £200, but having now completed her challenge has managed to more than triple that amount – with donations to her JustGiving page now topping £685.

You can still donate by visiting www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Phoebe-Green47.

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