A six year old from Aberdare is taking to her treadmill and walking to help other children during lockdown.
Ivey Moore-James will be doing her first ever charity fundraiser and completing a 30 minute walk to raise money for The Children Society. According to her mother, Joanne James, Ivey usually hates walking but wanted to do something challenging to help to kids less fortunate than herself:
“Every time we go out after five minutes she starts saying she doesn’t want to walk, so for her 30 minutes is a big challenge. We are very fortunate, when we went into lockdown I found my old running machine and set it up so we could do some exercise in the house. When she saw it Ivey decided she would do a walk for charity.”
The kind-hearted child has been wanting to do some fundraising for a while. In the past Ivey has sorted out toys and asked her mother if they can be taken to a charity shop and even suggested doing a cake sale.
However, it is the recent Coronavirus crisis that has really motivated the young girl. When the pandemic first started to get bad Ivey became very concerned about people not being able to afford food, Joanne added:
“She watched the news and saw the reports about empty supermarket shelves and foodbanks being overstretched and understaffed, she got very upset and put a note up in our window to say we had plenty of food and people could come here and get it. I had to explain we could not do that, but we could do some fundraising.”
Joanne found three charities she thought Ivey might like and then explained what each of them did, Ivey then chose to support The Children’s Society as she liked the idea of being able to help other young people. The six year old was also very worried about children who might live in abusive homes. Joanne said:
“I tried to explain to Ivey that some children are not fortunate and their mummies and daddies are struggling and The Children Society supports them, this really made her want to help.”
So far Ivey has raised over £100 and has been training for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon. Her walk will take place on Friday 10th April at 12 noon.
Nikki Pawsey, Director of Supporter Communities and Groups at The Children’s Society said:
“This is such a heart-warming and positive story during these difficult times. Ivey is a fantastic young girl doing an amazing thing to help other young people. During this pandemic young people need us more than ever and it is thanks to incredible supporters like Ivey that we can still be there to help vulnerable young children who will be affected in so many ways during these unprecedented and challenging times.”
To donate to Ivey click here.
