Our First Fundraising Event

AMay 4th 2018 saw our first ever Charlie Gard Foundation fundraiser event with our youngest ever fundraiser! 20-month-old Darcey Pyrah from Leicester walked 1k for the foundation around her local park. Her story was covered by the Leicester Mercury, where she made the front page.

We spoke to Jo, Darcey’s mum, after the event:

I was so nervous before Darcey walked the 1km because it’s such a long distance for someone with such little legs. I thought it was going to take her all day with lots of sitting down breaks and tears, but she proved me and everyone wrong and excitedly hurried round without stopping for a rest (apart from when she fell over)! It was as if Charlie was watching down on her and helping her round. I was so so proud of her! Having been born just a week before Charlie, Charlie’s story really touched our hearts and we want to do everything we can to raise money and awareness for the charity.

Darcey also launched our brand new ‘Monkey’ for the foundation shop whilst she completed her walk. Darcey carried him with her every step of the way and was gifted the first monkey as a thank you from the foundation for launching our fundraising events and for promoting our new Monkey toy, which we hope will raise much needed funds to support our mitochondrial research and family support.

Darcey raised a whopping £800 for her sponsored toddle and she has inspired many other parents and toddlers to participate in sponsored toddles around the UK, and even inspired supporters from Europe and America to participate in fundraising events too. Darcey inspired us at The Charlie Gard Foundation to look at creating the Charlie Gard Cheeky Monkey Run: a sponsored toddle created especially for the foundation. More information on this coming soon.

For those of you wanting to purchase a Charlie Monkey, they will be available to pre-order in our shop from June 1st.

All photo credits to Beth Walsh Photography.