A five-year-old cyclist is aiming to ride 100km in 10 days to raise money for the county’s mental health service.
Benjamin Lower, who lives with his family at RAF Honington, is riding 10km a day around the airfield and has currently raised more than £800 for the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.
While cycling the primary school pupil is joined by parents Katie and Rob.
Katie said; “During a bike ride we talked about lockdown, coronavirus and how hard the NHS is working, in particular how lucky we are to live here and have safe routes to ride our bikes.
After clapping outside the house on a Thursday evening Benjamin asked me why we were doing it. I explained it was important to show the NHS how grateful we are and his reply was ‘all the doctors and nurses must really love us to do that’.
“So we thought by doing something we enjoy, we could raise funds to support one of our local trusts.
“I don’t think mental health charities get enough recognition and deserve all the help and support, to care for those most in need. Benjamin is still very young and his view of mental health is mostly about positivity and confidence. We have always encouraged him to be himself and explore experiences that make him happy.”
NSFT deputy chief nurse Dawn Collins said: “It’s really lovely to see how people are pulling together to help raise funds for our staff and service users. We’d like to say a big thank you to Benjamin and his family and wish him the best of luck finishing his challenge. What a star.”
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