AN 11-YEAR-OLD boy from Poole has chosen to take on gruelling challenge of running 100km in a month to raise money for Julia’s House.

After reading an Echo article about the charity’s struggles since the coronavirus lockdown, Angel Younger, who usually attends Baden-Powell and St Peter's Church of England Junior School, has decided to take it upon himself to help them.

Sammy Younger, Angel’s dad, said: “Before the lockdown, he was training three times a week with his football which is plays at quite a high level. He went from something nearly every evening to nothing.”

“He and I started running together as something to do and now he is really getting into it. When we go out, we try to push ourselves, go further and further every night.

“We saw the story that the Echo wrote about Julia’s House which was really upsetting. He have raised money for them in the past with my boxing, but Angel came up with the idea by himself that he wanted to do something to help.”

The football fanatic will be breaking his challenge into 5km runs. Having run his first run on the evening of Tuesday April 14, he now has another 19 runs to complete in 30 days.

Sammy added: “He has a heart of gold; he is so empathetic and thinks about other people before he does of himself. This challenge is him all over.

“When we were setting his fundraising limit, he was happy to raise £100. I said that he could easily raise £250 which he has already smashed.

“He over £300 now and he can’t believe it.”

As a year six student currently unable to attend school, Angel hope to be able to go back to school as soon as it is safe in order to say goodbye to his friends before they go their separate ways.

“Hopefully he can go back to school because it would be horrible to not have that big send-off with his mates because they are all going to different schools,” said Sammy.

He added: “That final day is a bit of a mental one, scribbling of each other shirts and it would be a real shame if he isn’t able to have that so hopefully, he can go back for one last hurrah.”

To donate to Angel’s crowdfunding page, visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/angel-younger?fbclid=IwAR2nRoDLdsRHl18fPvdK190mG6nkmJd5vfrOW8ah8aCAlCRC2cU0Yk6idoY.