Young fund-raiser's cycling challenge to help Chester Zoo

The organisation has raised concerns in public about its financial position and even with some visitors returning from Monday is likely to be relying on public support for some time to meet its massive running costs.

And 10-year-old Emily, who is a regular visitor to the zoo with her family and has a passion for nature and wildlife, decided she wanted to use pedal power to help.

The Atherton youngster chose the distance of 200 miles because that is how many Sumatran tigers – her favourite animal – are left in the wild.

Proud mum Jen Roberts said: “She’s really passionate about looking after the Earth and all the animals and loved learning about conservation at school. She’s also been on zoo experiences for her birthday.

“We go quite a lot to Chester Zoo as a family, she loves all the different animals. The tigers, penguins and orang-utans are her favourites. I saw that the zoo was struggling and told Emily about it. She first wanted to donate her pocket money but then thought that wasn’t very much.

“She got a bike for her birthday so she said she would do a sponsored cycle. We said she needed to do something pretty difficult so people would get behind her and she wanted to link it to the zoo.

“Originally she wanted to cycle the distance to where the Humboldt penguins live but we told her that was 4,000 miles away, which changed her mind quite quickly. We settled on 200 miles for the 200 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.”

Emily has covered around 30 miles and smashed her initial target of £200, raising well over £1,000 in around a week with the help of Facebook and an online donation page.

Jen says Emily has been delighted by the way her challenge has struck a chord online. The zoo itself has also sent her a message about the fund-raising.

She said: “She’s absolutely over the moon with how much she’s raised so far and is really proud of herself for what she’s achieved.

"She’s also received an email from Chester Zoo thanking her, which she thought was absolutely amazing. It has blown her mind that the zoo would write to her.

"She’s also getting lots of messages of support telling her she’s doing really well. That obviously spurs her on.”

Emily has been riding between the home she shares with Jen and stepdad Scott Roberts and the house where her dad and stepmum Christopher and Jaclyn Wyper live.

For more on the challenge or to donate, search for Cycling For Chester Zoo on Facebook or visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cyclingforchesterzoo

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