A campaign has been launched for a statue of Olympic hero Keely Hodgkinson.

The 800m runner won gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics, adding to the medals she secured in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, European and world championships and Commonwealth Games.

Her success has already been celebrated in her home town of Atherton, with a large mural on Church Street in 2022 and a telephone box on Bolton Road recently painted gold in her honour.

The Believe star she was awarded by Wigan Council has been given an Olympic upgrade and reinstalled outside Leigh Town Hall.

Gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson on the podium during the women's 800m medal ceremony at the Olympic Games Paris 2024

placeholder image — Gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson on the podium during the women's 800m medal ceremony at the Olympic Games Paris 2024

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Now, a new campaign has been launched on Facebook to work towards creating a statue of Keely.

It hopes to follow a successful campaign in honour of rugby league star John Woods – Leigh’s all-time record points scorer – which culminated in his statue being unveiled outside Leigh Sports Village (LSV) in 2016.

Jason Donohue posted on the page: “A few years ago I threw the idea about getting a statue of John Woods – it was a great concept and gave the club an identity at LSV.

"After the success of Keely Hodgkinson at the Olympics, I’ve been in contact with her family and another project begins – a statue of Keely to celebrate her achievements.”

Another post on the Facebook page reveals more information about the project, including the amount of money that may be needed for a statue.

It states: “This Facebook account has been set up to fund-raise in order to raise funds for a statue of Keely Hodgkinson to celebrate her fantastic Olympic gold medal.

“Having consulted with Keely and her family, we have permission to take the idea forward.

“This is in its infancy and it is hoped a steering group can be created to lead and help the fund-raising.

“A sculpture who created John Woods’ statue at Leigh Sports Village has quoted a price of £35,000 + VAT which will include the bronze, the design and fitting in place. A plinth is also needed to secure the statue in place.”

Wigan Today has tried to contact the campaign organiser but did not receive a reply.

To find out more about the campaign, search for Keely’s Statue on Facebook.