A family have thanked a Dundee runner who put his best foot forward to run 48-miles in two days and raise thousands of pounds for a holiday for a young cancer patient.
Gary Walls, 36, let his feet do the talking as he raised money for a school friend’s daughter, Summer-Rose Charnley.
The brave 11-year-old is currently receiving treatment for leukaemia at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh after relapsing just before Christmas.
The Invergowrie Primary School pupil had been cancer free for around two years after her first diagnosis at just six years old.
Gary heard the update on the youngster’s condition and reached out to fellow former Menzieshill High School pupil and Summer-Rose’s mum, Faye Shilcock, to see if he could help.
The die-hard Dundee Football Club fan took on the challenge of running two miles every two hours over a 48-hour time frame to raise over £4,000 for the family to go on holiday.
Faye said: “It has been overwhelming that Gary has done this and he was insistent he wanted to do it for Summer-Rose.
“He told us about the challenge and we were watching his progress, the signal isn’t great in the hospital so I was nipping to check his Instagram stories to see how he was getting on.
“Every time I kept checking in I kept thinking ‘wow’.
“Not only to what Gary was doing but also to how much people were donating, it has really given Summer-Rose a boost and something to look forward too.
“Summer-Rose has never met Gary but she is smiling from ear to ear now because of what he has done.
“Off the back of what he has done she has all of these ideas now and has been looking at going to Flamingo Land in England.
“Due to the restrictions and Summer-Rose’s condition it will be a UK trip for us.”
Gary, originally from Whitfield, admitted he hadn’t run for six months before taking on the challenge.
He said: “I’ve got a daughter myself, Georgia, and hearing what the family have gone through I wanted to help.
“I think anyone would have done the same to try and help.
“I set a target of £2,000 and we’ve raised over £4,250 through everyone’s generous donations.
“I’ll admit I was in bits after it. It was only the last 10 hours when the weather took a turn but it’s been worth it.
“I got so many nice messages during the fundraising from all over the world, including one from Stiliyan Petrov who played for Celtic, Aston Villa and also battled leukaemia himself.
“I’m delighted with how much money we raised, we also just received a generous donation of £500 from Greg Burke of the Besty’s charity in Dundee.
“It’s just a shame I can’t give them the funds in person at the moment. Hopefully one day I’ll get to meet the family.”
Summer-Rose is set to move to the new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) in the coming days.
Faye added that had also been a boost to her daughter, who should have been starting back at Invergowrie Primary this week, along with the rest of her primary 7 classmates.
She added: “She’s still been able to keep in contact with her classmates in a group chat but we are just taking each day as it comes at the moment.
“Summer-Rose is on a new antibody drug, so she is on a 24-hour infusion for 28-days.
“If things go well with this new drug she will go onto another chemotherapy block which will last 12 weeks.
“After that she will hopefully be on a block that’s not so intense, which will hopefully allow for a wee break away around the end of July or August time.
“Summer has been so brave throughout this and we can’t express just how thankful we are to Gary.”
To donate towards the Summer-Rose fund visit the Go Fund Me page.