A 7-year old from Kirk Hallam who came into the world prematurely and spent two weeks in intensive care has completed a marathon well within the space of a month in aid of charity.
Esme Wainwright has spent September striding out along the streets of her home town as well as running around Shipley Country Park to amass the challenge of 26.2 miles faced by marathon runners.
Mum Lisa works for pub and brewery company Greene King who have adopted Macmillan Cancer Support as their chosen charity and Esme has been and is raising money for them. Whilst Lisa suggested that Esme covered just a half-marathon, Esme had other ideas and wanted to cover a full marathon and said that doing otherwise was merely "half a job".
Esme hasn't been running for that long, but her Dad is a keen runner and has helped her with training which resulted in completion of the marathon distance six days inside the month and has received so much support, an aim to raise £500 has been smashed with the total having now passed the £700 mark.
At premature birth at the 34 week stage at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, Esme weighed just 5lb 5oz and was tube-fed and given oxygen whilst in intensive care for a period of two weeks. She has gone on to counter her Mum's initial concerns that she would always be weak, and behind others. Lisa said that to see her complete the marathon had made her feel very proud.
Esme said: "When I heard that my mummy’s work team were raising money for Macmillan, I just had to get involved. I set myself a challenge of a marathon in a month and started it on 1st September, running most days before school, whatever the weather! I love to run, and Macmillan is such an amazing charity."