Asthmatic six-year-old Biggleswade boy goes the extra mile for hospital charity

Six-year-old Harrison Davies, who attends St Andrew’s Lower School East, suffers from asthma, but has laced up his trainers to encourage people to be active and boost the morale of frontline workers.

His mum, Amy, said: “Harrison started to come out running with me at the beginning of the month with the idea to keep his lungs strong. His teacher, Mr Douglas, was really encouraging of it and supported him taking up running, and asked if he wanted to set himself a target for February. When I asked him what charity he wanted to do this for he said the NHS for the coronavirus work they do.

“Harrison has himself used our local hospital a fair few times when he’s struggling with his asthma and needed either an ambulance or A&E help. And, East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals Charity are focusing on the well-being and support of staff and patients affected by the pandemic, so it seemed the perfect charity to choose.

“I’m so proud of the determination and grit that he’s shown so far, to just get out every day and smash out those miles. He’s brilliant.”

Although Harrison is used to doing CrossFit as a junior athlete member of Cortex in Sandy, running is new to him, but he’s out for two miles a day five times a week. He said: “When I was doing 0.5 miles I was like ‘wow this is going to be an easy challenge.’ But then when I done the three miles I was like ‘heck no it isn’t!’”

Amy is herself doing the End-to-End challenge this year and thinks this might be spurring on Harrison too. She added: “It is something that’s massively important to his dad and I, our children seeing us keep fit and healthy so they’ll want to do it too. They say kids copy you so setting the example is only right.

“Everyone has been so amazingly supportive, it’s been so lovely for him. I shared a post to We Love Biggleswade on Facebook and the people of Biggleswade have been great, leaving lovely messages on the post and even donating. It blows Harrison’s mind that people that don’t even know him would donate to the charity and show their support.

“In a tough time when Harrison is homeschooling and missing family and friends it’s been a really lovely positive thing for him to focus on. He does his school work, submits that and then heads out to get the miles in. I think teachers have had a rough ride during this pandemic too, but Harrison’s teacher has been so supportive. After all it was he that gave Harrison the idea to set himself a challenge, it’s fair to say H took that idea and ran with it!”

Harrison set out to raise £75 but already the total stands at £2,300 on his Just Giving page - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Harrison-Davies2