Walking to Granny’s house
Imogen, 9, and Jasper, 7, hadn’t seen their Granny since she had been in hospital for her bowel cancer operation, before lockdown began. As they couldn’t visit her in person, Imogen and Jasper decided to virtually walk the distance of 91miles/ 146km from their house in Redditch to their Granny’s house in Wales. Parents Nick and Julie got in touch to share their children’s amazing story.
My mother Gill, aged 74, has stage 3 bowel cancer that was diagnosed in February this year. She had emergency surgery just before the lockdown to remove the tumour, which went really well. Because of the risks with coronavirus, it was decided that it was too risky for further chemotherapy treatment, so she is recovering well from the operation and staying positive. She’s amazing and has been so strong and positive throughout - she has inspired us all.
It has been difficult not to visit Imogen and Jasper’s Granny and Grampy during this time, as naturally you want to support and be close to loved ones when they are ill and going through so much. We thought whilst we can't actually travel to Wales to see them, we could virtually 'travel' the distance and that would give us something to focus on while raising money for such an important cause.
Imogen and Jasper are extremely enthusiastic - the first thing they do every morning is a 1k walk to start the day off! They have the added bonus of having endless energy which helps. They have been amazed at everyone's generosity and are so pleased that they can help their Granny and other people like Granny.
Day one started on 24 May and we are now nearly at the 100km mark, so only 46km to go!
With each day we virtually see how far we have reached on the map, we have covered Redditch to Crowle in Worcestershire, to Upper Wyche in the Malverns, to Phocle Green (near Ross on Wye), to Kemeys Inferior and will finally end up in Penarth, Wales – Granny’s house!
We received a lovely ‘welcome to Wales’ video from Mike Locke, the Bowel Cancer UK Fundraising Manager for Wales and Imogen and Jasper were delighted with this!
Completing this challenge has really made our children think about other people and how to raise money for amazing causes like yourselves. Imogen and Jasper have raised over £900.
Imogen and Jasper’s fundraising page can be found here.
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