As part of the #thisgirlcan initiative, the Girls of Beech Hall School have been set a challenge. They will attempt to complete the 97 mile Cheshire Ring Canal Walk within 36 hours as an all-girl relay.  The walk will start at 6am on Friday 30 June and the aim is to finish before 6pm on Saturday 1 July 2017.  The event will be an all female affair. The School are encouraging the girls to bring along as many of their female relatives - Sisters, Mums, Grandparents, Aunties, Cousins - and friends as possible to join in the walk and support them. 

This Girl Can is a celebration of active women who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets. Funded by The National Lottery and developed by Sport England, its aim is to help women and girls overcome the fear of judgement that is stopping too many of them from joining in.  Organiser Jenny Lyons said, "Last year, my son, his friends and their parents from Beech Hall, cycled 230 miles from the sister school, Riverston, in London to Beech Hall raising over £12,000 for charity. I felt it was only fair to challenge the Beech Hall girls this year and give them the opportunity to show how capable and determined they are." 

The charity chosen for the event by the girls at Beech Hall is Becca's Wish to Walk.  Becca was born at 28 weeks, with her twin sister, Lottie, by emergency caesarean section, weighing in at just 2lbs.  Becca has spastic cerebral palsy which affects all her limbs, and in 2016, she was accepted for Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery at the St Louis Children's Hospital, Missouri.  This has meant that Becca's spasticity has been permanently reduced, her sitting and standing postures have improved, and her transitions between postures are easier and faster.  However, her journey is far from over, and she is now undergoing intensive physiotherapy, which is currently unavailable on the NHS, and therefore needs to be funded.  This will give her the independence she craves and hopefully enable her to fulfill her ambition to attend a mainstream school full-time with her sister, Lottie, as currently she is only able to attend three days a week, and a special school for two days. 

For further information on the This Girl Can Challenge, please contact Jenny Lyons / Tandy Palmes on thisgirlcan@beechhallschool.org.