A PAEDIATRIC nurse is cycling more than 3,000 miles starting in Oxford to raise money for children hospices across the country.

Francesca Lennon, 35, will cycle between all 54 hospices in the UK in a bid to raise over £500,000 to support their work.

Her bike ride will start on Monday (June 20) at Helen & Douglas House, in Magdalen Road, where Ms Lennon worked for one and a half years supporting seriously ill children and their families.

She said: “I couldn’t ride a bike very well to start with so it has really been an incredible journey for me.

“The idea is to raise awareness for the work that hospices do for the children and their families and I’ve had so much support so far, which has been really lovely.

“We need to make sure people know about these services and the money raised will go to the different hospices – I worked for the NHS for 10 years and then at Helen & Douglad House, which really made me realise what children and their families go through in these situations and I wanted to do something to make sure as many people as possible knew about them.”

Oxford Mail: Francesca LennonFrancesca Lennon

It will take her 70 days to complete the challenge, which will take her across the country to Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Cambridge, Sheffield, Belfast and Scotland as she stops at every children’s hospice service across the UK.

Ms Lennon will be raising funds for Together for Short Lives, who represents children’s hospices around the UK.  

Part of the money will be donated to Helen & Douglas House, to help local terminally ill children in the county.

 

 

Andrea Baganz-Pritchard, community fundraising manager at Helen & Douglas House, said: “We are delighted that Francesca will start her epic 3,200 mile cycle ride around the 54 UK children’s hospices here at Helen & Douglas House.

“This is particularly exciting because it is our 40th anniversary this year and we were the world’s first children’s hospice opening in 1982. Since then 53 children’s hospices have opened in the UK and across the world. It all started here in Oxford and at Helen & Douglas House we continue to lead the way in children’s palliative care.

“This cycle ride is a great opportunity to showcase the invaluable work of children’s hospices who provide vital support to local families with terminally ill children through difficult times and the need to raise money to make this possible.

“A donation of £25 could pay for an hour’s phone call from a children’s hospice nurse to give advice to a parent on how to care for their child at home.”

To donate, visit https://www.justgiving.com/team/CHATUK

To learn more, visit https://www.chatukproject.com/