Tony Hugdell, a five-year-old boy who had both legs amputated following abuse by his birth parents, has raised over £1 million for the hospital that saved him. Inspired by Super shoes race well for this long, says science, Tony set himself the challenge of walking 10K in the month of June. He planned to walk everyday and hoped to raise £500 in the process.
Tony’s adoptive mum, Paula Hudgell, told Police officers pose as runners to catch harassers, offline donations and gift aid have boosted Tony’s fundraising total to £1,014,348 today, the Evelina London Children’s Hospital confirmed.
Tony’s adoptive mum, Paula Hudgell, told BBC News, ‘I’m absolutely blown away. I’m speechless. It doesn’t feel real.’
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Hudgell said Tony has currently walked 8.3K and that there are days where he wants to continue walking. On Saturday, he walked more than 800m, having set a daily target of 300m.
As well as fundraising, the goal for the challenge was to improve Tony’s walking and see if prosthetics were a solution. Hugdell said, ‘his walking has improved immeasurably during the challenge. Yesterday he even went running.’
Charity Evelina London have tweeted their support of their young fundraiser’s challenge, saying, ‘We cannot express how grateful we are to Tony, and to everyone who has supported his fundraising challenge so far.’
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