As a proud Beaver Scout, 7-year-old Charlie Craven has a strong sense of looking out for others in need.

When life changed for his family as the nation went into lockdown, Charlie took an opportunity to do something positive and helped raise £2,000 for good causes, including the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal, by running a full marathon distance in just two weeks.

His fantastic achievement has attracted the attention of Sir Mo Farah, a congratulatory message from Paula Radcliffe, comedian Keith Lemon and Leicestershire Cricket coach Paul Nixon.

Charlie’s dad, Matthew, explains how he was inspired by the national outpouring of support for the NHS and key workers as the coronavirus pandemic peaked.

“Since lockdown, we let Charlie stay up for the clapping on Thursday nights and I think that inspired him to want to do something to help,” says Matthew.

“The Beavers have been great throughout lockdown and made all the kids set themselves a personal challenge and we came up with a running challenge for him. We started off running around where we live to help build up how long he could run for without stopping.

After a week, he’d already achieved all his targets. So his mum said, half-jokingly, ‘maybe you could run a marathon?’. And Charlie said ‘okay’. We set him a goal to run a marathon distance over three weeks, but he got really into it. He ran a lot further than we thought and after the first week, he’d already run over half of his marathon. So we revised his target to do it over two weeks instead.”

Despite only being a challenge for his Beavers group, Charlie’s Great-Grandmother offered to sponsor him for running the marathon. The family set up a JustGiving page with a target of £300, but were stunned when Charlie hit that within just 24 hours.

“It’s amazing,” says Matthew.

“To think it started off as just a little thing for Beavers and getting a little bit of sponsorship from friends and family, to think that he’s raised over £2,000… I can’t believe it.”

Matthew set up Charlie with a dedicated Twitter account to try and spread the word of his efforts. Videos and photos of his running were liked by British athletic legend Sir Mo Farah, comedian Keith Lemon, Leicestershire Cricket coach Paul Nixon and even a personal message of congratulations from former marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe.

Charlie has decided to share the money he’s raised between the Beavers and our Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal.

“We wanted to give it to something local to Leicester, rather than the national NHS,” explains Matthew.

“We spoke with Leicester Hospitals Charity about all the different places the money could go and Charlie decided he wanted it to go to the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal.

“It’s been an adventure for him. It’s a big achievement, something really positive that we can look back on through all of this when it’s been not a very nice situation at all.

“I’m very proud. Every time he went out for a run, even on the days when his feet were hurting, he never stopped at all. He always made it home. So I’m proud of him for how he always kept going too.”

Anyone wanting to contribute towards making the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal a success can visit DoThemProud.com to donate, sign up as a supporter or learn more about the appeal, or can follow the appeal on Facebook at FB.me/DoThemProud and help spread the word on social media using #DoThemProud.