A FROME boy who raised over £200 for the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) last year through the ‘50k in May’ challenge is on course to smash his own fundraising record for the charity this year.
Ten-year old Rory Jones from Frome, who has walked 50km in the past month in and around the local area to raise money and awareness for the NDCS, has already matched last year’s impressive fundraising tally.
Rory is walking to raise money and awareness for the charity that helped him when he was younger. His sister Rosalie (aged seven) and their seven-year-old Hungarian rescue dog Laika also joined in with the challenge this year. Rory’s mum, Sophie, says she is very proud of her children for giving back to the charity.
“Both Rory and Rosalie are raising money and awareness of hearing loss in children,” said Sophie. “While this is Rory’s second go at the 50k in May challenge, this is Rosalie’s first time doing the challenge and she’s done an incredible job on her walks – the longest walk we completed was 11.6km. Both Rory and Rosalie say they want to do this challenge every year now.
“I am so, so, so proud of the children! Rory was born with a severe to profound hearing loss in his left ear, so he wears a hearing aid and he always goes for bright and glittery colours. He is confident and proud to wear his hearing aid. Before Rory’s hearing loss I had never heard about the charity, so I think it’s important that people know what support is out there.”
Annabelle Saunders, who supports fundraisers for the NDCS said, “On behalf of everyone here at the National Deaf Children’s Society, I want to say congratulations to Rory and Rosalie on completing our ‘50k in May’ challenge for the second year running – you are stars! Thank you so much, we’re so proud of you both.
“The NDCS is dedicated to supporting the UK’s 50,000 deaf children and their families, just like Rory and his family. The efforts of selfless fundraisers like Rory and Rosalie will help us to keep on doing our vital work, now and into the future.”
When Rory was seven weeks old, he was diagnosed with a profound to severe unilateral hearing loss in his left ear. After many years of visiting the audiology departments in St. Martin’s Hospital and the Royal United Hospital and after many years of his mum reading the quarterly magazine from the NDCS, Rory finally got his first hearing aid when he was four years old.
As part of this year’s challenge, Sophie and the children explored Frome, the nearby Shearwater lake in Warminster, as well as walking further afield to Great Elm to enjoy a picnic and forage for wild garlic.
Rory said, “I enjoyed last year’s challenge and I wanted to do it again this year to raise even more money for the charity. It’s been really nice to do this challenge again, but it has been hard sometimes as there has been so many walks. One of my favourites was the walk around Vallis Vale.”
Rosalie added, “I liked doing the challenge as we got to see some nice things like a double rainbow!”
The family finished the challenge at the end of May and celebrated by going for fish and chips and a play on the beach at Weymouth.
Rory has raised £200 at the time of writing – if you would like to donate you can visit: https://shorturl .at/eiyD7 or alternatively you can donate to the JustGiving link at: https://short url.at/hijn4
