8-Year-Old Bailey Runs for Self-Created Charity Initiative ‘Bailey’s Bears’
8-year-old Bailey from Benwell, Newcastle is running the AJ Bell Mini Great North Run on 9 September for Bailey’s Bears – a charity he started in 2022 following his dad, Sean’s surgery for a brain tumour.
At that time, Bailey was given a surgery bear by his mum, Sarah, and the Ward Clerk, Katie Chubb, where his dad was being treated. The surgery bear helped to ease his anxiety surrounding his dad’s illness and treatment, by having the same surgery wounds and stitches. During Sean’s recovery, Bailey would give his bear the same care that his dad was receiving.
Following the surgery, Sean underwent a 30 day period of radiotherapy, requiring four minutes of treatment each day. Bailey decided to run for the same length of time with his bear each day, raising a total of £380 to provide bears to other children experiencing similar circumstances.
In 2022, he ran the Mini Great North Run for the first time and raised a total of £1500 for Bailey’s Bears. The bears are personalised for each child who requests one and distributed through North Tyneside charity, Live Well With Cancer, who offer free support to people affected by cancer. Bailey is pictured below with charity founder, Maureen Elliot.
This year, he hopes to raise more money for his charity and improve his time – in order to do this, Bailey’s been following a training regimen which includes regular running and swimming.
The AJ Bell Junior & Mini Great North Run is the UK’s biggest and best kids running event. Taking place on 9 September on the Newcastle Gateshead Quayside, with plenty of encouragement and high fives from the crowds, it’s an action-packed day with an atmosphere like no other.
Mini runners aged 3-8 take on a daring 1.2km dash, while Juniors aged 9-16 tackle a 4km supercharged sprint.
For more information visit www.greatrun.org/events/junior-mini-great-north-run
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