Thatcham girl running 2k a day for premature younger cousin

A Thatcham girl is undertaking a sponsored run over the Christmas period for her younger cousin who was born prematurely.

Eight-year-old Georgia is running 2km every day with her mum from Dec 1 to Dec 24, with a 2km family walk on Christmas Day, to raise money for Bliss, a UK charity offering support and resources to babies born premature or sick.

She was inspired to support the charity after her cousin Dylan was born three months premature in February.

And she has already raised more than £1,000 through her online fundraiser.

Georgia’s mum Louise Tully said: “Dylan has been to hospital on three occasions because at 24 weeks, his lungs had only just developed.

“His immune system isn’t where it should be, but he’s doing good.

“We’ve always been very open with Georgia. She’s always very excited about her cousin, but she understood that she wouldn't be able to see him because of contamination.”

Georgia, who attends Spurcroft Primary School, has been running to support babies like her cousin regardless of the weather, even through the recent Storm Darragh.

“We’re doing it every day and it doesn’t matter if it’s windy or I don’t feel like it,” she said.

“My cousin was born premature. I haven’t seen him for a long time. The reason I am doing it is because he was very poorly at the time he was born.

“December is the happy kind of month when you get together with your family.

“I thought if I did something good for my family, I would get more happiness.”

And speaking about some of the difficulties she has faced so far, Georgia added: “I have done some running, but this is the first time I’m doing it for days and days.

“But I have this thing when I run, my heel hurts.

“When I was putting my foot down, I was always ending up on my heel, but now I managed to do it on the middle part of my foot.”

She confirmed she is wishing for an Xbox for Christmas.

Please visit https://shorturl.at/ZOE03 to support her fundraiser.

Nearly 58,000 babies in the UK — or one in every 13 — are born preterm (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) each year, according to Bliss.

The charity is campaigning to encourage the Government to commit more resources to neonatal care and to change the legislation and funding around when maternity pay starts and to increase leave for parents with premature babies — which is currently the same as for full term babies.