Jack Bennett of Barrow was diagnosed with Tortacolis, severe Cerebral Palsy and epilepsy all before his 2nd birthday. He was told he would never sit, crawl, walk or talk.

Jack has attended Rainbow House near Chorley for the past 9 years: a charity that provides conductive education to children. Against all the odds he can now sit independently, bunny hop crawl, stand with support and has started to feed himself.

Jack is a very bright boy with excellent understanding and has come along way - especially overcoming the passing of his dad in 2015. Jack and his family are wanting to give him the opportunity to continue developing and beating the odds and will therefore need to purchase a lightweight, self propelling wheelchair which will enable him to move shorter distances independently as well as ease the difficulty of someone pushing him. The wheelchair is tailor made to fit Jack and also has the added benefit of an adjustable frame so he won’t grow out of it.

However this wheelchair is very expensive costing £3850. The wheelchair provided by the NHS unfortunately won’t meet Jack’s needs and so this cost is very demanding on his family that already support him so much.

Following on from the amazing work of the Adonis barbers in Ulverston we wanted to help get Jack to his target so he can purchase this life changing equipment.

In order to incentivise donations Brett Carter, James Newton, Joe Philbin, Ryan Johnston, Shane Toal and Tom Walker have agreed to take on the 4/4/48 challenge: complete 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours (48 miles with a lack of sleep is not for the faint hearted). The timings will be at 12am, 4am, 8am, 12pm 4pm and 8pm on a continuous cycle for 2 days - James completed his on the 16th/17th of May; Shane, Brett and Ryan completed theirs on Sunday 24th May; and Tom and Joe started their at 4am on Tuesday 26th May.

Shane, Brett and Ryan completed the 4pm Sunday run in fancy dress (as Jack's favourite Marvel Characters).

Any additional funds raised will be used to cover the fee Just Giving take, fund additional parts for the wheelchair (incl. wheels for a variety of terrains) and then the rest will be given to Jack's family in order to continue to support Jack's learning and development in a variety of ways.

I know times are currently challenging but please try and spare anything you can for this amazing cause!