Five-year-old Ollie Slocket, of New Longton, set a new distance record when he pedaled a 10k section of Morecambe prom on Sunday to raise an incredible £1,500 for the team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity and its ‘Give a Gift this Christmas’ project.
Ollie, areception class pupil at New Longton All Saints’ CE Primary School, had previously only ever cycled half that distance but with mum Hannah running alongside him and dad Sam, little brother Teddy (two) and other family and friends cheering him home, Ollie managed to keep pedaling all the way to achieve a time of 1:35.
Hannah said: “Ollie absolutely smashed it. He started feeling the distance at about 7k and was exhausted by 9k but he kept going. We are very proud of Ollie and very grateful for the incredible support he received.
“Ollie is a real giver. We talked to him about the meaning of Christmas and how it’s about giving as well as receiving and he wanted to raise money to buy gifts for children in hospital at Christmas time.”
The charity team’s Lucy Clark said: “What a superstar! Congratulations to Ollie for achieving such a distance at such a young age. We are extremely grateful to him, his family and Ollie’s supporters for this wonderful donation that will make such a difference to our young patients come Christmas Day.”
The ‘Give a Gift this Christmas’ initiative is fundraising to provide presents for all patients – approximately 2,000 men, women and children of all ages – who will be spending their Christmas in either the Royal Preston or Chorley and South Ribble Hospital this year.
On Monday, 16th December, the charity team will board a Stagecoach donated bus to visit workplaces, businesses and schools throughout the Preston and Chorley area to collect gifts such as toiletry sets, socks, hats, puzzle, colouring and reading books and stationery items such as colouring pencils. Anyone wanting to catch the gift bus on its travels and have it stop at their location to make gift donations should email lucy.clark@lthtr.nhs.uk