What do you do when you’re in lockdown and your dad is suddenly deployed to help fight coronavirus in the Outer Hebrides? Well if you’re anything like Daisy, who’s 11 years old and lives in Salisbury, you start an epic charity challenge. We caught up with her to find out more…
“I went to South Africa at the start of January to spend a term there on a school exchange, which was awesome! Sadly, I had to return a few days early in March due to Covid-19 and when I arrived back, we went straight into lockdown.
A week later, dad was deployed with 48-hours’ notice. It was pretty tough as I’d just got back, especially as we didn’t know how long he would be gone for.
I really wanted to do something for charity during lockdown and inspired by a 50km challenge we were set by my school, I decided to challenge myself to go a bit further and cover the distance from our home to where my dad was. That’s 1,080km of cycling and running. And just to make it tougher, I’ve set myself a goal to complete it before term starts again in September. 
Four weeks in, I’ve so far covered 180km in and around Salisbury. I don’t have a treadmill so it’s all road or trail running. I have to do an average of 10km a day. Sometimes I do a long bike ride – with mum or our neighbours – and others I do shorter runs or a ride with my little sister. Dad is now home so he can come with me too! It’s really good fun.
I’m raising money for my two favourite charities – Little Troopers, because they’ve always supported myself and my sister while my dad has been away, and Blood Cancer UK, in memory of our friend Major Mandy Islam who sadly died last year, and our military neighbour who is currently undergoing treatment. I’ve raised more than £2,000 so far and my original target was £1,000!”
Congratulations to Daisy on her amazing achievement – and she’s still going strong! You can follow her progress on Twitter and Instagram @daisyscharitychallenge.
Images: Claire Cobham