By Mal Butler
An eight-year-old boy has completed a run around the Island’s coast, and raised around £1,700 for the RNLI, after originally hoping to raise £250.
Charlie Storey, accompanied by his mum, Emma, has achieved the 122km (76 mile) run in four stages, with each stage taking two days.
They reached the finishing line at the Yarmouth RNLI’s Eric and Susan Hiscock’s Wanderer 17-25 in the harbour, yesterday afternoon, to be greeted by members of the local crew.
Emma said: “It has been a real adventure. We originally thought we would do 12km-a-day (7 1/2-mile) over 10 days, but Charlie was running an average of 16km-a-day (10 miles), so we reset our target.
“He has run up and down the hills in the heat over the last few weeks, although the final two days were perhaps the easiest.
“It’s been an amazing experience. To get to our various stopovers, we have used buses, hitch-hiked, and in the more remote parts, taken taxis. People have been so supportive and kind, whether they have been visitors themselves or locals; they have been brilliant towards us and supported our cause.
“We’ve seen some lovely parts of the Island from beautiful landscapes to packed beaches, and then running without seeing anyone for miles.”
Charlie, from Pilley, near Lymington, was given a tour around the lifeboat by some of the crew, including engineer, Richard Gregory-Pimm, and operations manager, Tom Carlstedt-Duke, and admitted to “driving daddy’s boat” a bashed-up RIB.
He said he would like to pilot a lifeboat when he gets older, saying, after an initial 10 ‘verys’ it was: “Very, VERY cool!” His Justgiving page can be found via iw.observer/charlie-rnli.
Isle of Wight Observer