Esmee’s Big Read is racing through the pages for Hospice 

A six-year-old’s page-turning fundraising challenge which is raising money for the charity which helped her Grandad has got off to a flying start.

Esmee Tegg-Clarke hoped her reading challenge – Esmee’s Big Read, in aid of St Nicholas Hospice Care, would raise £20 for the charity but just a few days in to the challenge her efforts have raised more than £650.

Avid reader Esmee, who attends Abbotts Green Community Primary School, said: “I would like to raise money for St Nicholas Hospice. I am going to read 20 books and I am going to ask my family and friends to sponsor me.

“I would like to raise the money for the hospice because the people aren’t well and my money will help to get medicine for them to make them calm and peaceful like my grandad Terry when he came to the hospice.”

Although Esmee’s Grandad Terry died before she was born she was aware of the hospice and how it helped her family, and after walking past a hospice shop and recognising the sign Esmee said she wanted to help.

Esmee’s mum Angela Tegg said: “I explained that it wasn’t the actual hospice but a shop that raised money for the hospice.

“She said she was going to take some food in there for the people who were poorly and homeless. I explained that they weren’t short of food and they weren’t homeless but that raising money would help to buy medicine and equipment.”

Esmee started her challenge on Saturday, 11 February and books on her reading list include When the Tiger Came to Tea and the Wizard of Oz.  You can support Esmee’s efforts on her sponsorship page here.