Pensioner braves the elements for Fraja (From Darlington and Stockton Times)
Send us your pictures, video, news and views by texting DST to 80360 or email us
Pensioner braves the elements for Fraja
2:44pm Monday 11th March 2013 in News By Alexa Copeland, Reporter (Darlington)
Fraja Simpson from RAF Leeming with her parents Michelle and Garry
PLUCKY pensioner Ted Harris braved snow storms and freezing temperatures to complete a sponsored walk for a young cancer sufferer.
Mr Harris, 74, of Darlington, was spurred into action when he read an article in The Northern Echo about four-year-old Fraja Simpson who suffers a rare form of cancer that could be cured by expensive treatment in America.
The Simpsons, of Leeming, have five months to raise the £500,000 needed to send Fraja to the States and Mr Harris was determined to do something to help.
He organised a sponsored walk at Catterick Racecourse and completed five laps of the course – a distance of more than seven miles – raising more than £400 in the process.
He said: “When I saw the photograph of that little girl in the paper and saw how much money the family needed to raise, I just thought, ‘I have to do something’.
“It’s only a small thing but maybe if we all did things like this it would raise enough for her.”
The weather was against Mr Harris when he took to the racecourse yesterday and the grandfather-of-four had to plough through blizzards and icy temperatures to complete his five laps.
He said: “I didn’t bank on the snow and the weather being like it was, but I managed it, I just had to keep stopping for cups of tea to warm up.”
Mr Harris wished to thank his neighbours, Catterick Racecourse officials and patrons of the East End Working Mens Club in Darlington for their support.
