Seven-year old Stewkley boy 'super duper happy' after raising £365 for KidsOut charity

The Year 2 Drayton Parslow pupil said: “I’m super duper happy that the money can be spent on giving children an awesome day out and I hope they have a fabulous time.”

Running wasn’t something he’d done before but he resolved to give it a go, accompanying his dad who runs several times a week.

He and his mum set up a JustGiving page and Joshua set himself a goal of completing 21 km – the equivalent of half a marathon – in 36 days.

The keen youngster got into training and went out in all weathers.

Hs mum recalled: “Lots of his runs were across muddy fields in wind and rain and cold temperatures.

"He found fitting them in on dark night around other things – like football practice and matches, street dance classes, Beavers and school work – tough and tiring.”

She added: “Knowing people had sponsored him gave him the motivation to go out on days when he perhaps would have preferred to play on his switch console.”

The aspiring Mo Farah quickly got to his 21km target and decided to go for the full marathon – 42km.

He started going to junior park runs on Sunday mornings to clock up the distance. His longest run was 5km with a personal best time of 10.39 for 2km.

Stewart Moulds, KidsOut Director of Fundraising, said: “We really appreciate Joshua's hard work to help children less fortunate. Running 43.5 kilometres and raising over £350 so far is an amazing achievement. This sent 35 children on our National Rotary KidsOut Day on 14 June. Thank you for supporting us and the children.”