Young fund-raisers run to help Wigan hospital children's ward

The duo, aged seven and five, ran an impressive 60km during the month and have been rewarded by bringing in more than £400 for the ward which looks after ill youngsters.

They even brightened up the day for their local community by doing a couple of runs in fancy dress.

Lizzie and Victoria decided they wanted to help the hospital after having to visit A&E during the first lockdown.

Proud mum Ann Rutter said: “Originally they wanted to do a charity run for something else but when we looked you had to pay to enter, so I said it would be nicer to just go out running and raise money for charity.

“They ended up with a trip to A&E during the first lockdown but didn’t have to stay in. They said that even though they didn’t see Rainbow Ward they didn’t think it would be very nice for children to be stuck in hospital so they picked the ward.

“They went out near enough every day. When they saw the distance was getting higher and higher they were quite pleased with themselves. Sixty kilometres is a long way.

“I didn’t think they would get that far because they’re only young and the weather in February wasn’t that great, but they were out even when it was raining.

“Their uncle in America kept setting them targets and I wrote them down so they could see how far they had to go. They obviously wanted to beat the targets he had set them.”

The Lowton West Primary School pupils headed out for around half an hour to 40 minutes on their running expeditions, usually accompanied by Ann or dad James.

The longest run they managed to clock up was just over five kilometres.

Lizzie and Victoria also did some of their charity fund-raising in costume, which sparked quite a bit of attention in their neighbourhood.

Ann said: “They went out in lemur and unicorn outfits and we did another fancy dress run as well.

“We had people stopping us in the street and we posted it on Facebook. Towards the end of the running we went down this street and an old lady came out of the house, gave us £20 and said she didn’t know how to donate online.

“She didn’t have to do that but she wanted to give them some money.”

To find out more about the charity challenge, search for Ann Rutter at www.justgiving.com

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