Stephen Cannon, from Harrington, secured a place in the Great North Run for Hospice at Home West Cumbria (HHWC)  earlier in the year, as he wanted to challenge himself to complete a half marathon, and support a local charity.

Stephen decided that the allowed exercise time during the lockdown period would be a great time to start training and fundraising for hospice, and joined by his daughter Sienna, they set themselves the challenge to run 5K, sponsored by friends and family via a Facebook fundraiser.

Stephen said “I suggested to my daughter Sienna who is 10 that we could use our daily exercise to raise some funds to get the ball rolling and she completed a 5K run with me, managing to raise £280 over a day or two. She was delighted

Stephen and Sienna completed their run on the cycle track from Moorclose to Distington, and back again.

After seeing that HHWC had then launched a ‘2.6 Challenge’ Stephen got his partner’s son Jay on board too, and they completed an over 26 mile bike ride!

Stephen said, “My partner’s son Jay who is 12 and extremely fit and active, wanted to get out of the house and ride his bike.  I had seen the 2.6 challenge doing the rounds on social media and thought what better way to raise more money for Hospice at Home West Cumbria. I suggested to him we ride for 26 miles and set up a Just Giving page like many others were doing. Jay took on the challenge and raised £495 which I rounded up to £500 myself”

Stephen and Jay cycled from Harrington to Allonby and back, clocking up a fantastic 27.1 miles in total.

With both challenges complete, Sienna and Jay raised a whopping £780 between them.

Stephen added “I’m sure we will do other things to support Hospice at Home West Cumbria and they will be my charity of choice for any fundraising I do in the future. The kids never really understood what Hospice at Home was but once we explained the fantastic work they do they were delighted that they’d done so well for a local charity

Thank you to Stephen, Sienna and Jay for your fantastic fundraising efforts. It’s heart-warming to see how many people in our local communities are supporting us at this time, and it’s great to see all the imaginative ways people are fundraising from home.

If you’re thinking about fundraising for us from home, there are lots of different things you can do. Click here for some ideas of things to do with the family  click HERE