I am Gabriel and I am 8 years old. I was very inspired by the amazing achievement of Captain Tom Moore fundraising for the NHS and many other people fundraising for good causes, while keeping active during the lockdown. 

My Mum is from Colombia and my grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins live there. My mum was reading the news from Colombia and how bad the situation is there. It is very hard there during the lockdown for many poor families and their children. Colombia’s health system does not have the same resources as we do here and the doctors don’t have the necessary equipment and PPE to cope with the pandemic. 

There are millions of homeless people and the Government also has to deal with the increasing pressure on resources from the Venezuelan refugee crisis, therefore exposure to the disease and to many other health problems is greater. Many adults and children are starving.

I decided to set myself on this challenge to do my bit for Colombia. I am running/walking every day to complete at least a half marathon distance per week (21 Kms). I will do this for as long as the lockdown continues. I will record this via Endomondo or Strava and if I cannot go outside, I will run laps of 30m in my garden and will record videos of this to count laps and therefore, distance. I will hope to fundraise as much as possible for Friends of Colombia for Social Aid. 

Challenge Week1: I started on the 2nd May with a 6.6km hike around Sulham and tilehurst, followed by a 100 laps around my garden for a total of 9.6km on day 1. The next day I ran-walk 6km around tilehurst. Total so far: 15.6km.

Week 1 - 4th May: ran 3km in garden.. 7th May: ran 3km in garden. Will upload videos/time laps in gallery.  Total for this week: 21.6 km! Thank you to those friends who have donated so far, thanks to you I can keep going :-) 

Week 2: starting sat 9th May with 3.3k run/walk, Sunday same run, Monday 3k in garden, and I had to go on Wednesday and hit a 6.4 k to make up for my laziness on Tuesday. After learning my lesson I did my 3.3k loop in tilehurst on Thursday and Friday I did an exact 3 laps  of 1k each around Sol Joel Park.  So I hit 22kms this week as promised, yeees! (See my gallery)

Week3: I started the week on the the 16th May but I missed that day so we went on Sunday 17 May on a long shopping walk trip to Tesco to make up for two days. On Monday I did a short trip to cuscutter and back then I ran 50 laps in the garden to make just under 3km. Skipping the 19th may being my dad and sister’s birthday I then did a long walk of 6.64km on the 20th May. It has been too hot and I had headache but I tried a short 1km on Friday and went for  river walk to Caversham on Saturday of 3.37 km to make up for the 21km. I plan to close the month and the fundraising this week, so please do help me to reach my target by the end of this week. 

About the charity: Friends of Colombia for Social Aid (FOCSA) are delighted to join efforts with Colombia Cuida a Colombia an alliance of multiple people, organisations, institutions, charities and corporations to mitigate the impact of COVID19 on the most vulnerable parts of the population in Colombia. Currently the efforts of Colombia Cuida a Colombia are focused on 2 key areas: food and health.For this reason, FOCSA has launched a Special Appeal to raise funds to provide much needed relief to the health sector in Colombia, which is currently under significant strain. In particular, our Special Appeal will raise funds to provide equipment such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for key workers in the health sector (doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical lab personnel) who are exposed day after day to the risks of COVID19 as they help members of the community affected by the disease.With your help we can all contribute to save lives in Colombia. Every contribution helps!