She’s a postie with true positivity.
Kelly Williams is on a mission to spread the message of acts of kindness for others, and has completed an incredible 26 marathons in as many days to save the life of a woman she has never met.
The Spread a Little Sunshine campaign all started when Kelly, 40, heard of the plight of a lady called Sol in Argentina, who was struck with deadly Lyme Disease by a tick bite on holiday in the UK and urgently needs treatment she can’t afford.
Kelly and Sol have never met – but are friends on Facebook due to a mutual friend Kelly met while travelling in South America five years ago.
Mirfield woman Kelly said: “I saw this plea for help on Facebook and it really resonated with me – I couldn’t stop thinking about it and decided I needed to do something.
“I thought, ‘anyone can run a 10k and raise money.’ I needed to do something different and bit more eyecatching.”
Kelly was inspired by Sol’s name – meaning ‘sun’ in Spanish – to create the Spread A Little Sunshine campaign, both helping to raise the £60k needed for urgent stem cell treatment while simultaneously encouraging people to commit acts of kindness.
“I knew I needed to do something big to raise this money so I decided to do 6 marathons in 26 days both running and walking around West Yorkshire.”
Kelly needed to fit her challenge in around work - so counted her steps during her post round, then carried on afterwards.
At the end of each day, Kelly uploaded a video onto social media talking about her day’s marathon and tagged eight friends encouraging them to complete their own acts of kindness.
“I have been tagging celebrities on Twitter,” she added. “It will take a few goes but I’m hoping that someone will see what I’m doing and spread the message so it goes massive.”
The £60,000 she is helping to raise will go towards stem cell treatment to save Sol, as well as transport to either of the two clinics in Germany or Nevada, USA.
Lyme Disease is a deadly condition contracted by tick bites which leaves sufferers unable to walk and with excruciating pain in the skin and joints.
You can donate to the cause here (www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Spreadalittlesunshine?utm_id=107&utm_term=WN39BB2kQ) . To find out more about Lyme Disease and Kelly’s campaign, visit spreadalittlesunshine.org.
