Twelve parents raised more than £7,000 for Ashton Keynes Primary School during a fundraising event last month. 

Over the weekend of September 26, the parents ran a 24-hour relay around the village day and night to raise money for the school’s Learning Hub Fundraising Appeal.

Six of the parents who took part were meant to run the cancelled Paris Marathon in April.

They were joined by many children and adults in the village community running or walking as many 1.5-mile laps as possible, all socially distanced.

The core team of 12 ran 321 miles, passing a sanitised Olympic 2012 baton between them, and a total of 1100 miles or 734 laps were completed by all participants.

Ages of those involved ranged from the youngest boy in the school, Henry Rudd to the oldest village resident, Mrs Jill Arengo-Jones.

At 102 years young, she was permitted the use of a mobility scooter.  Longstanding school governor David Tarr (91) walked 10 laps (15 miles), raising £1,600 in the process.

There were impressive performances from many of the children, with lots running between 5 and 9 laps, 9 laps being a half marathon.

The core team slogged round in the cold and dark through the night, sometimes with kind volunteers who left their warm beds to run a few laps.  Many of the 12 ran a marathon or more in total, with several half marathon personal bests in the night. The furthest run by an individual was 50 miles. 

The £7,500 raised exceeded all expectations and takes the running total of monies raised for Ashton Keynes’ new Learning Hub to a whopping £100,000 out of £110,000 needed.  This has been raised in nine months, despite the challenges of lockdown cancelling many planned events.

For those who would like to donate please go to bit.ly/3jVMA5Y