Youngsters help to raise cash for Oz
Kind-hearted friends respond to bushfires in Australia
A GROUP of young friends who set out to raise £100 to support people hit by the bushfires in Australia have smashed their target.
Ted and Wilf McCormick, 8 and 6, and Jude and Max Wells, 11 and 7, took on a seven-mile run from Market Bosworth to Fenny Drayton to raise money for animals shelters and rural fire services.
The kind-hearted pals have raised just over £1,200 through their JustGiving page along with other donations.
“An amazing effort for the lads who have sorted this all out themselves”, said proud dad Adam Wells.
“We’re absolutely gobsmacked, we couldn’t believe it. The donations surpassed anything we ever thought.
“When Ted decided to do it, he just wanted to make £100. With everything that’s come in with the crowdfunding page, it’s getting up to £1,500.”
Ted and Max are best friends and go to school together at St Peter’s Church of England Primary Academy in Market Bosworth.
Another young person who has been raising funds to go to Australia is Hinckley Academy student Leah Bates.
The 13 year old donated some unwanted Christmas gifts to be raffled off at the school, to get money together to support the Koala Hospital in Port Maquarie, in New South Wales.
The raging fires have affected more than five million hectares of land across New South Wales and Victoria.
Leah’s mum, Jemma, was raised in Australia until she was 18 and some of her best friends and family live in the Melbourne area.
Jemma said:
“It is very important for my children to learn about Australia, it is part of who I am and who my children are.
“They ask questions all the time and I love to talk about every aspect of my life - I had a wonderful life.”
One of Jemma’s friends down under, Nicole, has bad asthma and has been unable to leave the house because of the smog from the flames.
Another of her close friends, Taryn, lives near where the fires have spread and she has a baby to care for.
Jemma said: “I am worried for them, the smoke could affect long term.
“The temperature is rising each year and staying hotter for longer and fires are spreading which worries me if they get caught up in it.
“My other concern is, if resources become low because everything is their lungs centred on the fires, they may not get the help they need.”
She said that the Government over there needs to commit more resources to tackling the fires but that it’s great that people in Britain also want to help.
She said: “Charity starts at home. We should always think about our own country first.
“But if the shoe was on the other foot, we would want help. Sometimes we should help our neighbours like they would help us when we are in trouble.
“Maybe a little bit goes a long way.”