Local 10-year-old lad Lucas has recently taken on, and smashed, a 50km challenge throughout January to raise funds for a charity close to his family’s heart; Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group.
A keen sportsman and athlete from a young age, Lucas ran laps of Oakley and took part in the weekly fun run to hit his target of running 50km in January, all in support of Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) who went above and beyond for family friend Tessa who was diagnosed with Leukaemia over two years ago and had her last treatment on Boxing Day.
We caught up with Lucas’ mum Erica to find out a little bit more about the motivation behind the challenge and just how supportive the local community have been.
Erica explains: “Tessa is my friend Lucy’s daughter and we became friends through my dog-walking service and they also run in the same park run as Lucas and me. It’s a two-lap run but Lucas always does an extra third lap to help Tessa finish. It’s really sweet and Lucas is amazing with Tessa and supportive when they are running together, you can only imagine how hard it must be to come out of treatment and run 2km every week, she loves having Lucas helping her which is just lovely to see.
“Lucas wanted to raise money by completing a challenge and chose CCLG who helped Tessa throughout the whole treatment. I set him the target of 50km, he usually runs around 5km a week so we had to more than double this to hit the target.
“After school he’ll come back, put his kit on, he’ll go and do a lap around Oakley which is roughly 3.5km, he absolutely loves it. He gets a lot of support from the local community; he even gets cheers from the locals and it’s really nice to see that.
“It’s so nice to know that the community are there supporting Lucas, Overton Harriers have supported him heavily with running advice and sponsorships. I came home recently and found an envelope with a donation from someone in the village; it’s just really amazing to see not just support by cheering, but also supporting the charity financially.
“I appreciate all of the support towards Lucas and the support for this very personal charity that helped a close friend, it means a lot to us; it’s great to be able to give something back.”