By David Hennessy
Inspired by captain Tom Moore’s achievement, a nine year old London-Irish girl from Kingsbury, North West London is walking 10k to raise money for her NHS heroes.
Ava Brosnan was born with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy and had a life changing operation three years ago to help her walk unaided.
Ava’s mother Mary Brosnan told The Irish World: “I suppose she saw him (Captain Tom Moore) with the frame and thought, ‘I can do a bit of this’.
“She’s very determined like that when she puts her mind to something.
“Ava had an operation three years ago now and since then she’s had physio every day at school but she walks with a walker and can walk a bit by herself. I think with determination as she gets older, because she’s nine now, her walking just seems to improve all the time.”
Ava began her challenge on Monday and will complete her challenge tomorrow, Sunday.
Although the original target was to raise £200, she has already raised £2,700+ for NHS charities.
“We were blown away.
“She’s done 8.5k, she’ll do the other 1.5k tomorrow. She’s been doing 1.5k every day and one day she did 2k.
“Bless her, she did yesterday but she did get some blisters. I said, ‘Have a rest today’. I had to convince her though.”
The Irish World featured Ava on the front page some years ago when the family were trying to raise the £40,000 required for her life changing operation. They had raised £12,000 when they appealed to us. Seeing Ava on our front page, a businessman who wanted to stay anonymous came forward to generously pay the outstanding amount.
Ava was determined to take the chance to do something for the doctors and nurses who helped her.
“She doesn’t let anything hold her back. She’s a very determined little lady.”
Ava is a big Mayo fan, both her grandparents her late Grandad,and her Granny are Munnelly from Ballycastle. The grandparents on the other side of her family were from Cork and Kerry.
You can donate to Ava’s cause by clicking here.