Sheffield boy with cerebral palsy raises over £15,000 at half-way point of lockdown marathon

Tobias Weller has been dubbed Captain Tobias by friends and neighbours who come out in their dozens to watch him complete 750 metres each morning, using his walker in his street in Beauchief.

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Scores of families greet Tobias at the same time each day, clapping and cheering his progress and waving placards urging him on.

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Inspired by the exploits of Captain Tom, who has raised over £29 million by walking 100 lengths of his garden to mark his 100th birthday,

Tobias has already raised almost £15,000 for Sheffield Children's Hospital and Paces School - a special school in High Green - and intends to add thousands more before his challenge is complete at the end of May.

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“I saw Captain Tom and he was using his walker, I think he's awesome,” Tobias said.

“I started doing 50 metres every day but now I do 750 metres.

“Yesterday I reached the half-way point - that's 21,100 metres. It was amazing. The whole street came out to clap me.

“It's a very long way to walk but I am finding it a bit easier every day.

“I love it when people are clapping and cheering. It motivates me to walk even further.”

His mother Ruth said: “When we were first on lockdown we knew that Tobias had to do physio every day so, in order to get in a routine, we started walking every day.

“And then people started coming out and clapping and cheering him. So we thought, why don't we have a target and a marathon's the gold standard?

“Then Tobias saw Captain Tom on the TV and thought, 'I can do that - he's got a walker, he's walking a long way and he's walking for charity. And I want to do that as well'.”

Abbie Pervin, regional fundraising manager at the Children's Hospital Charity, said: “We want to say a huge thank you to Tobias from everyone at Sheffield Children's for taking on this amazing challenge.

“He is such an inspirational youngster.”

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