A FOOTBALL coach who spent 86 days dribbling a ball 2,000 miles from Morocco to the Midlands has returned to the charity he raised the money for to reveal his final fundraising total.
James Lewis, 26, was just 11 when his father, David, was cared for at St Giles Hospice before he died.
Fifteen years on, he completed the challenge in his memory, returning to the hospice for a celebratory lunch, bringing an additional £2,300 in donations with him to take his total to £74,000.
It’s not the first fundraising challenge James has taken on for the hospice. He has previously run home from Paris and completed the Three Peaks Challenge.
His total fundraising for the Whittington-based charity has now passed £129,000.
Staff and volunteers from across the organisation gathered to celebrate his latest achievement.
Elinor Eustace, chief executive of St Giles Hospice, said:
"James is our biggest ever individual fundraiser – and every single one of us at St Giles is incredibly proud of him.
"To put this into perspective, £74,000 is enough to fund well over 2,400 hours of specialist care on our Inpatient Unit, the very place where James’s dad was cared for. That is his legacy, and it is an extraordinary one."
James said the reception was one of the few times he had come close to tears.
He said:
"I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, shared my story or sent me a message of support along the way – it genuinely kept me going on the days when my legs and my head were telling me to stop.
"This has been the most incredible experience of my life."
