Lauren encourages Westende walkers to go round the world!

HARD WALKING fundraisers from a Wokingham school were given an extra special thank you treat last Thursday: a visit from gold medal winning paralympian.

Lauren Rowles MBE scooped the top honour at the 2016 Rio games for rowing: just a year after taking up the sport.

She shared the story of her success and inspired the pupils at Westende Primary School at the assembly, before joining pupils in the playground for their fundraising walk around the world.

The scheme sees them take part in mile-long circuits of the school grounds in aid of Sport Relief, which is held this Friday.

Each mile walked by a pupil is added up and then added to a map of the world. By last Thursday they had walked the equivalent distance to China.

Their fundraising efforts follows on from last year where they raised £7,026 and walked more than 4,000 miles: enough to get them to Kenya ... and featured on the homepage of the Sports Relief website.

Ms Rowles, who lives in Twyford and trains at Caversham and Bisham

Abbey, was thrilled to meet the budding athletes at the Seaford Road school.

“It was good to see the hard work they do for Sport Relief - it’s an epic journey around the world,” she told The Wokingham Paper. “It’s been nice to come here. I love to schools and inspiring the children.

“Hopefully I’ve seen some future rowers today - although they will try other sports as well! It’s great that they’re all so interested.”