Teenager Jamie (surname not provided) is walking 120km in August to raise money for Jewish charity Norwood, ahead of his Bar Mitzvah on 1 September.
The bespoke challenge set by Jamie, from Edgware, sees him monitor his steps every day through August. He is reaching his daily goal of 7,000 steps in a number of ways, including tennis camp and trekking through local parks.
Jamie is raising money for Norwood because when he was having trouble at school, Norwood Speech and Language Therapist Debbie Selouk helped through the charity’s Binoh service. She also helped him through his transition to secondary school.
Jamie said: “Ever since my mum contacted Debbie in Year Five she’s been a great help and even now, two years later, she’s still very helpful. I just want her to know how grateful I am. The other reason for doing the walking challenge specifically is that I wanted to get outdoors more. I’m really enjoying it so far and the exercise, as well as the fact I’m doing a good thing for charity, is making me feel a lot better. I’m really looking forward to my Bar Mitzvah. My parents have put a lot of effort into it, especially my mum.”
Jamie’s mother Sonja added that she is “very proud” of her son.
“I wanted him to do something like this for his Bar Mitzvah and this is something we can do together. I’m trying to get out and exercise more myself and Jamie has to beat my steps for the day. It’s a good way for us to encourage each other.”
Jamie’s fundraising page can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jamie-wc
Further information
For further information please contact Norwood press team:
By email: pressoffice@norwood.org.uk
By phone: 020 8420 6866 or 07736 458532
More images are available upon request
About Norwood Challenges
In 2017 Norwood celebrated 25 years of organising Challenges – from cycling in South Africa to trekking in Iceland. It was the first charity in the UK to introduce the charity cycle challenge and has been attracting participants to our rides and treks ever since.
Norwood has taken thousands of challenge participants all over the world, testing their levels of endurance to the limit, giving them the chance to achieve something spectacular, as well as making friendships and memories to last a lifetime.
The charity’s challenge participants, who range in age from 18 to 82, have been inspired to raise millions of pounds to support our work with thousands of vulnerable children and their families, children with special educational needs and adults with learning disabilities every year.
Many have said that getting the chance to cycle alongside some of the people supported by Norwood made the experience even more memorable.
About Norwood
Norwood is the largest Jewish charity in the UK supporting vulnerable children and their families, children with special educational needs and people with learning disabilities and autism.
Founded in 1795, Norwood is one of the UK’s oldest charities and the only Jewish charity to enjoy the Patronage of Her Majesty The Queen.
It helps children and adults to maximise their potential at home, at school and throughout their lives, through personalised services designed to enable choice.
Norwood works with 56 local authorities and has over 55 sites across London and the South East. Each year Norwood needs £35m to keep its services running, £12m of which comes through voluntary donations.
Norwood currently runs eight charity shops across North and East London thanks to the support of 150 dedicated volunteers.
