Friends’ fun run for St Catherine’s Hospice

Abigail, Isabella and Amy - all pupils at St Mary’s Primary School in Normandy, Horsham, got their fellow students to run laps around Barrack Field to raise money for the Crawley charity hospice.

Amy’s mum Dawn said: “They organised the sponsored fun run, which was quite wonderful of them.

“They took it all on themselves, had a word with the teachers and arranged times when they could do it - they had to tell the whole school what they had to do.

“I thought they’d do well to get £100, but they got £504 in the end.”

Dawn said the idea came about after she overheard the girls talking about doing a sponsored event for a good cause.

They were planning to do something with just the three of them, but Dawn suggested that they could go a little bigger. “That was it,” she said, “they were off.”

Amy told the County Times that the three of them - also known as the Abizz Club - came up with the idea during a conversation at her home.

“They both came to my house, and we were sitting at the dinner table,” she said.

“We wanted to do a sponsored fun run together, and my mum said: ‘Why don’t you do something with the whole school?’”

They picked St Catherine’s Hospice because of a recent visit to their school by a woman who explained about the charity’s work, telling them exactly how their money would be spent.

“Michaela came to our school a few weeks before,” said Amy.

“We thought it was a really good charity to do. She told us what they do, and where the money goes to.”

Isabella said: “We went to tell Mrs Dutson, the headteacher, and she said she couldn’t say no, so she’d let us do it.”

After they’d submitted a written proposal to the school, the three were then asked to write to the parents to let them know about it, and distribute sponsorship forms.

The three are now looking ahead to their next event - Isabella said they are planning something which will involve running and swimming, but just the three of them will be taking part.

They have yet to decide which charity they will be raising money for.