Kettering Kids Keep Christmas Tradition
Every year Kettering RFC’s mini and junior players take presents to the children’s ward at the local hospital for young patients who can’t celebrate Christmas at home. This became impossible because of the pandemic so they took on challenges during the second lockdown to go the extra several thousand miles.
With the Under 10s already climbing Everest up and down their staircases at home and boosting carpet sales together with funding, the rest of the teams decided to walk, run or cycle the distance to Twickenham and back.
The U10s made it up Everest and halfway back down, where they remain encamped, having navigated their staircase 186 times each. They needed to scale 8,864 metres and made it to over 9,000.
The other age groups overtook their distance to Twickenham and covered other Six Nations stadiums, putting in 4,400 miles.
The combined effort was intended to provide a £1,000 Amazon wish list for the Skylark Children’s Ward at Kettering General Hospital but the young players were actually able to provide a total Christmas boost of £3,685.
Said Wes Easter, Kettering’s minis chairman and U11s manager: “It is amazing to see what the youngsters achieved in three weeks. They showed real team spirit and a determination to help others and were a real example of rugby’s values.”
Said a member of the hospital staff: “We are blown away with this help. We will be able to do so much with this money. The kind generosity of all at Kettering RFC is hugely appreciated. Thank you so much”.
