A challenging 150 mile trek is to be held in memory of a four-year-old girl.
Marsden man Gareth Price and his friends are now deep in training to walk the distance in just 48 hours for his daughter Holly, who died from a rare brain tumour in October 2013.
Around 200 people will join them throughout their non-stop challenge, which will start at the Leeds General Infirmary, where Marsden Infant and Nursery School pupil Holly was helped by the Candlelighters children’s cancer charity.
They will then walk to 18 sports grounds in West and South Yorkshire before finishing at the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice in Brackenhall.
Mike Wilson and Steve Wood, friends of Gareth, 36, have organised the event through Redwood Events, and they hope it will raise over £20,000 for the two charities, which Gareth is still heavily involved with.
It will be an emotionally as well as physically challenging walk for Gareth, who is struggling to get over Holly’s shock diagnosis.
He said: “The emotions are still really raw.
“The worst thing was the shock.
“Holly was an entertaining, full of life and healthy little girl who’d barely had a cold.
“But in January 2013 I got a call from her mum saying she’d collapsed at a play centre.
“She was taken to Huddersfield Royal and had a check up and doctors were convinced she had a squint.
“But she had an MRI scan a few days later, which was when a doctor told us that she had a brain tumour.”
Holly was moved to the Clarendon Wing at Leeds General Infirmary where she underwent a biopsy that revealed she had a Brainstem Glioma, which made surgery to remove any of it impossible.
“I can’t begin to describe the devastation of being told.
“She began an 80-week course of chemotherapy instead but deteriorated and was put on radiotherapy, which shrank the tumour by one third.
“But by then she was quite seriously ill, blind in one eye, weak down her left side, with partial paralysis to the face.
“It all proved too much for her and she fell asleep and didn’t wake up.”
Gareth explained the support given to Holly, himself and Holly’s sister Megan.
“Both Candlelighters and Forget Me Not worked together.
“Candlelighters did everything they could to help keep her alive with the hospital and the hospice was there to pick up the pieces after she passed away.
“Holly was put in the chilled snowflake bedroom, where I was able to stay with her right up until we took her to church for her funeral.
“I know I wouldn’t have coped without the support of the hospice and we were so lucky to have them on our doorstep, so I want more people to know about the place.
“I’m sure we’ll surpass our fundraising aim and this will not be the last event we do to fundraise, as they are such wonderful charities and the events help keep the memory of Holly alive.”
Arrow Self Drive has provided a support vehicle for the event.
To donate, go to www.redwoodevents.co.uk/donate-for-holly .
