A young boy from Oswestry, Alfie Davies, is running and fundraising for his chosen cause – the Manchester bombing victims. Alfie is a pupil at West Felton Primary School and his mum Cheryl McCarthy also works at the school. His mum Cheryl is joining Alfie on the 22 mile fundraiser and they want to bring awareness to the cause.
The charity Alfie is fundraising for is Hive22 Running Club and it supports six charities that have been set up by the families of the victims of the Manchester Arena Attack. They are, The Chloe & Liam Together Forever Trust, Liv’s Trust, The Megan Hurley Foundation, Eilidh’s Trust, The Remembering Nell Foundation and 22MCR.
Cheryl said, “Alfie’s teacher, Mr Kapasi-Lloyd, and headteacher, Mrs Hughes, have both been extremely supportive of Alfie, awarding him a certificate in Golden Book Assembly. Mr Kapasi-Lloyd has asked if he can run part of the run with Alfie and we are hoping he will do his last mile in school with his teacher and some friends.”
When asked how supporting this charity came about, Cheryl tells us, “We can all remember hearing about the awful Manchester attack on the news, it really hit me as my daughter was an Arianna Grande fan at the time so could have been at that concert. It was just so sad. Then Fireman Aaron Parmar started his fundraising – he ran 22 10k races, one for each victim. Afterwards he had the medals engraved and presented them to the families of those that lost their lives that night. The final 10k he completed whilst wearing his full firefighter kit.
“I found this so inspiring so when he announced he was starting up an online running club to keep the support to these charities going I signed up straight away. You don’t have to be from Manchester, there were people involved that night from all over the country. We even have members in other countries. It is a free club that welcomes all abilities. We have pages on social media, Facebook being the main one. Money raised from the running kit and the run2remember medal all goes into the pot to be divided at the end of the year.
“Once I had joined the club Alfie asked if he could join too. I showed him the two medals available this year and I asked which one he wanted. He asked, ‘Well which one makes more money for the charity?’ This is how he has ended up doing his 22 miles rather than the Hive mini mile.”
I think you’ll agree, 22 miles is a lot of running and when broken down into multiple runs, this takes a lot of time and effort to complete. Alfie is very active and runs a lot, so currently the training is 1 or 2 miles at a time (Cheryl is recovering from a foot injury). He has completed 6 miles of the 22 so far and the fundraising target is currently set at £500. Cheryl and Alfie are hoping to complete the challenge as soon as possible so they can get the money to Hive.
The Hive 22 Running Club members meet for park runs when it’s allowed and at events. It’s a social club as well as a running club. To find out more about the club, visit their Facebook page Hive22 Running Club. The club is always looking for new members and especially in Oswestry, so members can meet up (when Covid restrictions allow), to run.
To donate to Alfie’s 22-mile challenge, visit his fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/alfie-davies22
If you would like to earn your very own run2remember medal, they are pretty special this year: https://hive22runningclub.niftyentries.com/Hive22-Run2Remember-2021
To find out about the children’s Hive22 Mini Mile visit: https://hive22runningclub.niftyentries.com/Hive22-Mini-sMile-1-mile-Fun-Run
