Year two pupils from Ashton Primary School raise over £1,000 for Baby Beat

Year 2 on their picnic walk to Haslam Park. Pic: Baby Beat

Ashton Primary School has raised over £1,000 for Baby Beat with support from their ‘role model’ teaching assistant.

Year two pupils set themselves the challenge of running or walking 12km to raise funds for the mums and babies charity.

The children from the primary school raised £610 in total, with £580 added to the class’ donation by Kerry Ireland – their teaching assistant.

Kerry and Laurence with their finishers’ medals. Pic: Baby Beat

Kerry raised the money by completing The Lakesman, an Ironman triathlon.

Over seven hours, Kerry swam 1.2 miles in Derwentwater, cycled 56 miles and ran 13.1 miles through Keswick to complete the half Ironman category. Her partner, Laurence, was among the other competitors who had previously completed the full Ironman.

Kerry then returned to class to help her pupils run 4km and go on a 6km picnic walk to Haslam Park.

A member of Garstang Running Club, Kerry said: “Each class chooses a charity to support. We wanted ours to be a local one and thought Baby Beat was a good fit.

“A distance of 12km is no mean feat for six and seven-year-olds so everyone did really well. Thank you to all the children’s families and carers for their amazing support and thank you to my sponsors.”

Baby Beat funds specialist equipment, research, training and staff welfare projects so that the maternity and gynaecology teams can offer the best possible outcomes for babies and mums in the Central Lancashire and Chorley area.

Joanna Allitt, of Baby Beat, said: “It’s lovely to see children helping others younger than themselves and in Kerry, they had an inspirational role model for such a physical challenge.”

For more information you can visit the Baby Beat website.

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