Children’s Author, Will Hamilton-Davies and close friend Andrew King completed ‘The Celtic Ultra’, a circular route starting and finishing in Dare Valley Park.
The pair endured in entirely off road running which passed through woodlands, pastures, moorland and mountainsides. The route followed hidden trails over the vast expanse of the Afan Forest, Rhigos mountain range and surrounding hillsides in Wales.
_1.png "Will and Andrew")
Will has supported the local children’s hospice for over 3 years in various ways, from acting out his book 'The Shrew with the Flu' at a forest school session for bereaved families, to visiting the hospice to conduct a drawing and story session for children and young people who are supported by the local hospice.
CHSW are dedicated to making the most of short and precious lives through the provision of the best possible hospice care for children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and have been professionally supporting families in the South West for over 30 years. North Somerset’s, Charlton Farm provide resilience stays, palliative care and end of life care for local children with life-limiting conditions. They journey with the children and their whole family, often from the point of diagnosis to the death of their child and continue to offer care services beyond bereavement.
Will Hamilton-Davies said:
As a young Children's Author, supporting Children's Hospice South West has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done, and introduced me to the warmest, kindest community of people.
From fundraising cycles and wine-tasting events to 'The Shrew with the Flu' draw-and-dance along sessions in Hidden Woods: we've collaborated on a lot of special projects.
The race was every bit as gritty and gruelling as we anticipated, but with a great support team and more than double our initial fundraising goal for CHSW at stake, we finished the way we started: smiling".
Heidi Roberts, B&NES and West Wiltshire Area Fundraiser said: "Will is a great young man who is always looking for a challenge, and it is great that he and his friend Andrew completed the ultramarathon together.
They are an inspiration to others and we cannot thank them enough for raising s
uch an amazing amount for CHSW, and it was a pleasure to show them around the hospice, so they could see the big difference their fundraising will make.
Will added: “Make no mistake: before this, we have NEVER DONE ANYTHING remotely like this before. But…we love a challenge.
"We really wanted to complete this challenge to raise some money for an awesome charity, at a time when families who are missing little ones, or coping with the most challenging of circumstances.”