Fundraiser’s 2,000 mile dribble raises £74,000 for hospice care
A football coach who spent 86 days dribbling a ball 2,000 miles from Morocco to Staffordshire has returned to the hospice he raised the money for, to reveal his final total of £74,000.
James Lewis, 26, was just 11 years old when his father, David, was cared for at St Giles Hospice before he died. Fifteen years on, James completed the Africa to Rugeley challenge in his memory, and returned to the hospice today for a celebratory lunch, bringing an additional £2,300 in donations with him.
Staff and volunteers from across the organisation gathered to celebrate his achievement, many admitting they had checked his social media every morning throughout the challenge to see how he was getting on and read his latest anecdote.
Elinor Eustace, Chief Executive of St Giles Hospice, said the whole team was proud of what James had accomplished.
“James is our biggest ever fundraiser, and every single one of us at St Giles is incredibly proud of him,” she said. “To put this into perspective, £74,000 is enough to fund well over 2,400 hours of specialist care on our Inpatient Unit, the very place where James’s dad was cared for. That is his legacy, and it is an extraordinary one.”
James said the reception was one of the few times he had come close to tears.
He posed for photographs with the total, displayed in bold orange numbers, alongside Elinor and Sally Bedford, Chair of St Giles Hospice, who presented him with a card of photographs and messages from colleagues.
Asked which piece of media coverage had meant the most to him, James named his GB News interview, which alone drove around £20,000 in donations.
“The morning after that interview, I took my phone off do not disturb and it just would not stop going,” he said. “Donation after donation, notification after notification, I will never forget that feeling. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, shared my story or sent me a message of support along the way, it genuinely kept me going on the days when my legs and my head were telling me to stop. This has been the most incredible experience of my life.”
James set off on 1 May and arrived home to The Chase pub in Rugeley on 25 July, where he was met with a hero’s welcome, hundreds of residents, fans, friends and family joining him to mark the finish.
This is no stranger territory for James. He has pushed himself for St Giles for years, previously running home from Paris, completing a 24-hour blindfolded run, and taking on the Three Peaks Challenge, raising more than £55,000 across those combined efforts. The Africa to Rugeley challenge is by far his biggest undertaking yet, and takes his lifetime fundraising for St Giles past £129,000, making him the charity’s biggest ever individual fundraiser.
James’s fundraising will help fund end of life care for patients and families across Staffordshire, North Birmingham and surrounding areas.
To donate or find out more, visit www.justgiving.com/page/
