To 11-year-old Evie Clayton, her grandad is her hero. When he was diagnosed with lung cancer, she wanted to try and help him, and others like him, so she decided to take on her first ever charity race – the roarsome Dinosaur Park Race:
“I’ve always been close to my grandad. Grandad is the sort of person who can fix anything and I never hear him complain. He’s kind, determined and strong, so it meant a lot to me that I could do something special for him.
After I found out that he had lung cancer, I decided to run the Dinosaur Park Roar Junior Race to raise money for a good cause. I’ve run races before, but never in a race for a charity, so I was excited to be able to do this for him.
When I told my friends and family about what I wanted to do, they were proud. All my friends thought it was a great thing to do.
The race itself was extremely tiring as the route had lots of hills, but the thought of doing it for a good cause and being able to raise lots of money helped me to finish quickly. I managed to run the 2.5km course in a time of 11 minutes and 54 seconds which I’m extremely pleased with.
My grandad was proud at the end and I knew the hard work had been worth it. He became very emotional and it was great to see how much it meant to him.
Since taking part in the race I’ve decided that I’m going to keep up running as I am already a member of a local Athletics Club. One day I would even love to run a full marathon!
I am very keen to continue to raise money for this charity as it is very dear to my heart and I plan on embarking on one run per year to raise even more money. I am also keen to explore other ways to raise more money, which my family is keen to get involved with too.
My grandad is truly inspirational. He’s my hero. It’s nice to know he is proud of me the same way that I am proud of him. I hope that by continuing to raise money I can help him and other people living with lung cancer.
