Jersey Hemsted has completed an incredible fundraising challenge to raise money to support The Sick Children’s Trust, the charity that provides families with a ‘Home from Home’ when their child is in hospital.
Jersey walked a total of 25 miles throughout February, raising £415 to support the charity’s ‘Home from Home’ Crawford House located at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, where Jersey was born.
Inspired by her mum and cousins, who often fundraise for various charities, Jersey wanted to do her own activity to help others. Her dad, Malcom, found out about Crawford House and after telling Jersey about it she started raising money as she wanted all seriously ill children to have their family close to them. Malcom said:
“Jersey was really motivated to raise money for charity and to follow in her mum and cousins’ fundraising footsteps. As soon as I told her about Crawford House her decision was made on supporting The Sick Children’s Trust.
“Jersey really likes the outdoors and she was very determined to complete her challenge. Whether it was raining or snowing she was always asking me when we could go out for a walk and it became just as important as her home schooling!
“We originally set the target of raising £200 but we reached that within the first two weeks. To finish the challenge on double that amount is fantastic and I’m incredibly proud of her.”
Jersey added: “I really enjoyed doing all of the walks and found them really fun. My favourite was when I went out for a really long time with my grandad, walking for three miles! It’s really good that I raised so much for charity and it makes me really happy to help out.”
As well as Crawford House The Sick Children’s Trust runs nine other ‘Homes from Home’ across the country supporting families with a comfortable place to stay close to their seriously ill child’s hospital bedside. Andrew Leadbitter, Crawford House Manager, said:
“This is a fantastic achievement which Jersey should be really proud of and we can’t thank her and Malcom enough for their support.
“While we do not charge families to stay in any of our ‘Homes from Home’ it does cost the charity £30 to support a family for one night. We rely solely on the generosity of our supporters to keep the houses running, and fundraisers, like Jersey, are so important in making sure we can keep more families together with their ill children.”
