A YOUNG lad from Barrow has taken on his own charitable running challenge in memory of his grandfather.

Riley Gregg, whose tenth birthday was on Sunday, August 15, decided to complete a 5k run around Barrow Park to raise money for St Mary’s Hospice on Saturday.

His grandfather, Gareth ‘Nico’ Nicholson, passed away on November 7, 2020, and was taken care of by the staff of the Ulverston hospice.

In memory of him and in honour of the outstanding work done by the carers of the hospice, Riley chose to complete the running challenge on Saturday to raise money for them.

Riley is contributing toward the Friends of Gareth fund which has currently raised £4,695 out of its £5000 target for the hospice.

During his first day of fundraising, he received several donations from family and friends.

His mother Jenna will be with him on the day and spoke of how proud she was of her son’s dedication and drive to honour his grandfather.

She said: “I am so very proud of Riley and I know his grandfather would have been as well for everything he is doing.

“We’ve got a fundraising page going which Riley wanted to take part in.

“Part of the fundraising will be his run in Barrow Park which took place on Saturday at 10:30am.

“So far he has raised about £400 in just two weeks.

“A lot of people shared the appeal for him online and he’s got so much support from so many people.

“At the moment he’s got a paper form which people can just fill out for donations.

“He doesn’t really do cross country but when we were doing the charity walk for my dad, he really wanted to do his own thing to remember his grandfather.

“He misses him terribly.

“His other granddad is a very active man and he went round the park to see how many times he had to go round it to make 5k. He went round the boat sheds and the lake for eight laps.

“I’m just so proud of him. When he wrote his birthday list this year, he included a donation to St Mary’s. I’m so very proud of you Riley.”