A four-year-old Sunderland schoolgirl is set to run five miles to raise money for school

Poppy will be attempting the challenge on Wednesday, November 11 where she will run two and a half miles from her home in Ryhope to Hill View Infant Academy and then back again after she finishes school – totaling around five miles.

The four-year-old has been training for the challenge with her mum, Rachael Arundel, and her dad, Gregg Arundel, has set up an online fundraiser on her behalf.

Gregg has told the Echo where the idea for Poppy to run five miles in a day came from and how she has been training for the challenge.

The 34-year-old said: “It all started during lockdown earlier this year when we began going out for walks as a family.

"I did a fundraiser during lockdown and my wife Rachael does a lot of running, so Poppy just joined in with both of us.

"When she went back to school in September, there was talk of raising money to build a nature garden so she wanted to do a run for it.

"She’s been training once or twice a week but over the last few days, she has really been ramping it up.”

"We decided that we’d walk from our house to the school to check the distance, it works out at two and a half miles and it is something that she can manage.

Poppy has so far raised £500 and her one-year-old brother Teddy will be there on the day to cheer her on as she runs to school.

Gregg added: “When we posted the fundraiser, we didn’t expect to get as much as we have done, it’s all a bit overwhelming.

"Rachael shared it on Facebook and it just took off from there, people who don’t even know Poppy are donating and given the current circumstances with coronavirus, it’s nice that people are wanting to get behind her.

"I know how difficult it is to raise funds so I just want to say a massive thank you to all those who have donated.”

If you want to donate to Poppy’s fundraiser, you can do so by clicking here.

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