Jonjo,11, walks 66 miles in memory of his grandmother

An 11-year-old boy will be braving wintry conditions this school half-term to walk an impressive 66 miles over six days to raise funds for bowel cancer research. The walk, from 18 - 23 February, is in memory of Jonjo Heuerman’s grandmother, Lynda, who was treated for the disease at Guy’s Hospital.

To date Jonjo has raised more than £92,000, which he has donated to The Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, twice walking 30 miles from the West Ham United football ground to Wembley Stadium as well as climbing Mount Snowdon in aid of the charity.

Jonjo says: “I love football so when I found out that the football player, Bobby Moore and my nanny both died from bowel cancer I wanted to do something to help change things.”

Bowel cancer is England’s second most common cancer with around 33,000 new cases each year. Four out of five people diagnosed with the disease are over 50. Guy’s and St Thomas’ treats around 500 bowel cancer patients a year.

Jonjo will be handing over flowers to nurses on the Cancer Day Unit at Guy’s Hospital on the second day of his walk to thank them for caring for his grandmother who died of the disease in 2009.

Dawn Harper, Operational Head of Nursing for Oncology says: “Bowel cancer is a devastating disease but the sooner patients are diagnosed, the better their chance of successful treatment. It’s wonderful that Jonjo is doing his bit to raise awareness of the disease and his efforts to raise so much money at such a young age is remarkable.”

Jonjo's fundraising page is www.justgiving.com/fornannyandbobby