12-year-old  Harry honours his sister’s memory with JustGiving Award win 

A 12-year-old boy from Hertfordshire, has won Young Fundraiser of the Year at this year’s GoCardless JustGiving Awards for his efforts raising £20,000 for charity in memory of his sister. 

After tragically losing his younger sister Emily last year to an incurable brain tumour, Harry Smith turned his grief into something positive and decided to fundraise for The Brain Tumour Charity, in his sister’s memory.  

He swam a mile (64 lengths), climbed Scafell Pike – England’s highest mountain and cycled home from Addenbrookes Hospital, the journey he says his sister was never able to make.  

Harry was presented his award by TV personality, Josh Patterson, last night (September 25th) at the Roundhouse in London. He said: 

“WOW! Thank you. This is just incredible, I can’t believe I’ve won! I am really thankful to all the people who have donated to my Active April page for the Brain Tumour Charity – it’s an amazing amount of money that we’ve raised so far. And thank you so much to those who voted for me for this award. It’s so great to be part of the awards with all these amazing people. 

“Emily’s brain tumour was incurable, and this should not have been the case. Children should not die, they should have a future and a life ahead of them. My sister was only eight when she died and I miss her so much every day and it hurts. It physically hurts. 

“I chose the Brain Tumour Charity as they help fund research to find cures so that other children don’t have to suffer like Emily did.  Everything I do is to raise money for research towards brain tumours and awareness of the underfunded deadly brain tumours like Emily’s. This award is for you Ems.” 

Television personality, Jamie Laing and radio host, Matt Edmondson hosted the eleventh year of the awards which saw seven winners as well as JustGiving’s Charity of the Year announced at the ceremony. Since JustGiving started in 2001, more than £6 billion has been raised for good causes in more than 180 countries.  

Matt Edmondson said “Getting to co-host the GoCardless JustGiving Awards with Jamie is like finding a double-word score in Scrabble—brilliant and rewarding! Tonight’s finalists have touched us deeply with their stories, and they’re all champions, as far as I’m concerned.” 

The finalists were selected from more than 13,000 nominations by a panel of judges including Radio DJ Rickie Haywood-Williams, actress Angela Griffin, longstanding fundraiser, famous for wearing a charity shop outfit every day for one year, Caroline Jones and President and General Manager of JustGiving, Pascale Harvie and put to a public vote to win. 

The award ceremony was attended by guests including Zoe Hardman, Bill Bailey, Ellie Simmonds, Rickie Haywood-Williams, Angela Griffin, Dean McCullough, Tillie Amartey, Neil Jones, Aimee Fuller and Faye Winter.  

 Also in attendance was ultra-athlete, campaigner and TV personality, Josh Patterson who won a Special Recognition Award. 

The award recognises the outstanding contribution of an individual who has made a real impact on the world around them. 

 For more than five years Josh has been an avid fundraiser for the Samaritans and in his most recent ‘Run for 1 Million’ challenge Josh ran 76 marathons in 76 cities on consecutive days.   

 Pascale Harvie, President and General Manager at JustGiving said: “Harry’s story leaves me at a loss for words. Seeing someone so young turn the devastating loss of his sister, Emily, into a way of helping others is absolutely astounding. Harry really is an extraordinarily brave and admirable young man and thoroughly deserves this fantastic recognition for what he has achieved in Emily’s memory.   

“Celebrating the accomplishments of Harry and some of our other fundraisers and charities at the GoCardless JustGiving Award Ceremony was amazing – they should all be so proud of what they’ve achieved and the impact that they’ve had.”      

Pat Phelan, MD of UK & Ireland and Chief Customer Officer at GoCardless added: ”I was incredibly moved by Harry’s story and blown away by what he has done to raise more than £20,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity, in memory of his sister Emily. It was an absolute privilege to recognise his achievement at the GoCardless JustGiving Awards Ceremony and I hope it inspires others to start or continue their fundraising journey.” 

For more images visit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15EaxlZERGakGBfAZoC0aa2TiyfUaJTBw?usp=drive_link 

To read more about all the winners please visit https://blog.justgiving.com/2023-justgiving-awards-winners 

NOTES TO EDITOR

For further information contact  press@justgiving.com

*All figures quoted include GiftAid and are accurate at the time of releasing this press release.

Figures quoted relate to fundraising activity on JustGiving only. JustGiving is one of many fundraising platforms that people can choose from when fundraising for events such as the London Marathon.

About JustGiving
JustGiving is the world’s most trusted platform for online giving. We help people raise money for the charities and people they care about the most. In 2000, JustGiving.com began with one simple goal – to enable charities to receive donations online from anywhere in the world. Fast forward 22 years and over £5 billion has been raised for good causes in almost every single country in the world.

JustGiving became part of Blackbaud, the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good in 2017.

To note – JustGiving does not charge a fee on donations but instead operates a voluntary contribution model, meaning people donating can choose to leave a ‘tip’ if they wish. The only non-optional fee is a 1.9% + 20p to cover card payment charges.