Hartlepool students raise hundreds of pounds as they run 31,000 metres to help town hospice

Students from the advanced performance programme at High Tunstall College of Science put their running shoes on in support of a good cause as they ran 31,000 metres between them to raise funds for the town’s Alice House Hospice.

Wednesday morning saw 75 students, aged between 12 and 15, take over the school’s athletics track as they split in groups and ran up to 6 km each.

Ben Holden who is the sports science faculty leader at the school, said kind-hearted youngster Lewin Tubuna approached him with the idea for a fundraiser.

Mr Holden said: "The reason we chose 31,000 metres was because that’s the amount of people that have been treated by the Alice House Hospice in the last 40 years.

"It equated to 15 lapse per person of our 400 metre track, which for some of the students was quite a challenging feat, because some of them are only 12-13- years-old.

"It went really well, the students put in a fantastic effort. They tried really hard and it was team work as they ran around with their friends and they encouraged each other.

"It was just a really positive, feel-good event.”

He added: "I think some of them are a little bit tired as they’re sat in maths and English now, but they worked hard this morning.”

Mr Holden hopes the event will raise over £1,000 and said he was proud of his students: "To see the students going around the track and working really, really hard, I just felt very proud of them and I was very proud that they represented the school of High Tunstall and also that they were digging in and doing something quite special as a young person at this time when everybody needs that little bit of extra help.”

Janice Forbes, Alice Hospice’s community fundraiser, said: “It’s absolutely amazing what they’ve done. It’s been a difficult year for us and we couldn’t have got through it without the support of people like them.

"They did absolutely marvellous.”

The advanced performance programme has been running for 10 years at High Tunstall and it supports the school’s strongest sportsmen and women.

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