On the 19th of December 2020 7-year-old Frankie Hughes completed an 8 mile walk to raise money for her uncle Dan’s memorial fund with CRY. Frankie was 2 years old when Dan died in his sleep on March the 19th 2015 but she still talks about him and she attends most of our fundraising days with her younger sister Millie who was born the day after Dan died.
Frankie has recently joined the local Brownie club having spent 12 months at Rainbows, she had her badges book when she joined and the first one she chose to do was the charity badge.
“I want to do something for uncle Dan,” she said.
So we talked about what we could do and given the current restrictions due to the pandemic we thought a walk would be the best thing to do. We wanted it to be a challenge for her but make it something that we could associate with Dan so we settled on a walk from Stoke City’s Football ground to home. Dan had been a season ticket holder at Stoke for many years and it was 8 miles from the house where he died so we thought it was a fitting tribute to him and something that Frankie could manage. She spent 6 weeks training at weekends gradually building up the miles each time, she was out walking in the wind and rain but she had all the correct clothing and proper walking boots so she was well prepared.
On the day of the walk she left the stadium at approximately 9:45 with her Granddad Dave who walked the first half of the route with her. This took her over the river Trent, through Stoke town centre and on into Newcastle under Lyme where she had a break before setting off on the second half accompanied by her mum and nana. Younger sister and number one fan Millie surprised them on the route by standing on the pavement banging a wooden spoon on a saucepan to spur her on to the finish. Motorists peeped their horns at her as she walked the last mile down the hill into the village and there was a small socially distanced group of people waiting to give her a cheer as she made it to the Plough in Bignall End.
The support that she received was both amazing and humbling, she raised £2,388.94 via cash donations, a just giving page and a raffle. When gift aid is added in the total is £2,802.50. As well as being a success in raising money Frankie was also able raise awareness of CRY across Stoke on Trent, North Staffordshire and South Cheshire by speaking live on local Radio station – Hitmix 107.5 and recording an interview which was played on BBC Radio Stoke. Her walk also appeared in the local Newspaper and was mentioned on local community websites.
We are very proud of what Frankie achieved and would like to thank everyone who supported her and we are very glad to say that she got her Brownies Charity badge as well.
Well done Frankie, you’re a little star.
