Hatton 11-year-old taking on challenge for Warwick-based charity

An 11-year-old from Hatton is taking on a challenge in aid of a Warwick-based charity.

Henry Jenkinson, whose dad is a Trustee of Safeline, has put his running shoes on to raise money so Safeline can continue to support people affected by sexual abuse.

Henry’s aim for the 2.6 challenge is to run a marathon in five days, covering 5.3 miles a day for five days. His challenge will start on May 4.

Any money that Henry raises will be used to provide telephone support to Safeline’s clients who can no longer access face to face services because of the Government’s coronavirus lockdown.

Henry said: ‘"I will be running near my house and each run will be my daily exercise, in line with government guidelines.

"I do quite a bit of sport including football but have never run long distance before. In fact I’ve probably never run two miles in one go before, let alone five miles every day for five days.

"I know I will be able to do it. I have done a few short practices with my Dad and things have gone well. He will be joining me on each run, sometimes running and sometimes cycling.

"I thought I should do it because I was reading a magazine that said lots of people were raising money for the NHS but it didn’t say anything about other smaller charities so I wanted to help.

"Safeline (the charity I’m running for) deals with abuse and it seems that abuse has gone up since the lockdown. I think this is a very important charity to try and help.

"I’m feeling a bit excited because I do enjoy running. I’m hoping to raise £260 but secretly hoping to smash that.

"The runs will be early in the morning and I think each one will take 50 minutes. So in total that’s going to be over four hours.

"When I finish I’m going to be very proud and will reward myself with a cold ginger beer on the last day."

To support Henry with his fundraising please donate on https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/richards-26-challengeSafeline’s development officer, Rachael Stevens, took part in her own 2.6 challenge on Sunday April 26 by doing 26 different tasks throughout the day – with each task being 2.6 minutes long.

This included: step ups, sit ups, star jumps, skipping, running as well as hopscotch, bean bag juggling and dry cracker eating.

The last task of the day was clapping to thank those who have already supported and sponsored Rachael.

This campaign runs until May 3 so if anyone is interested in holding their own 2.6 challenge for Safeline please go to https://bit.ly/26SAFELINE