Lucy’s bid for the Great Wall

A young volunteer has raised almost two-thirds of the £3,000 she needs to walk the Great Wall of China for the British Red Cross.

Lucy Cunningham, 21, of Aldham Crescent, Wombwell, raised £792 alone last week at a clairvoyant evening she organised, adding to the £1,900 she had already raised through personal and corporate sponsorship.

About 110 people turned up to the event at Wombwell Main Cricket Club, which Lucy described as ‘manic’, and another will follow at the Elephant and Castle, Hemingfield, in June.

Lucy is hoping this will help her meet the target of £3,000 she has been set by the Red Cross in order for her to take part in the walk, which will take five days, with seven to eight hours’ walking each day.

Lucy will spend a total of nine days in China, a country she has never visited before, from October 5.

She will start her journey in Beijing and travel along sections of the wall in Taipingzhai and Juyongguan.

But she was clear it would not be a holiday.

She said: “I’m looking forward to it, and I can’t wait, but it’s my first trip alone without any family or friends.

“On nights we’ll be staying in really basic accommodation so what that’ll be like, I don’t know, but that’s not why I’m there. I’ll also be climbing 1,000 steps on one of the days so I need to start getting fitter.”

Jim to play for Australia

LOCAL hockey player Jim Stockham will don the green and gold for Australia after being selected in the Australian Men’s Country Hockey team.

Stockham was selected in the team of the carnival at the Australian Country Hockey Champs in Bendigo at the end of July, and that team will travel on to Hong Kong next year to compete for Australia.

The team will tour Hong Kong for two and a half weeks, playing league teams in different locations before taking on Singapore’s top hockey teams.

Stockham said he was excited about the opportunity to represent Australia.

“Since I was 16, I have always strived to make it.”

Making it into the Australian team was extremely competitive, he said, and the championships in Bendigo were tough.

He said the side he travelled to Bendigo with to make the Australian team had played together for the last four years, and made it to the finals for the first time since 1998 last year.

“Every time we do go over and play other associations in the country, it’s competitive,” he said.

Now, Stockham’s focus will move to representing Australia next year, and he will have to stick to a strict training regime leading up to the tour.

“There’s a fitness program that I’m not looking forward to … it’s mainly updates and we have to make certain goals,” he said.

“It’s all fitness, running 2 kilometres under ‘x’ amount of time.”

Despite the hard work between now and the tour, Stockham said playing for Australia will fulfil a lifelong goal.

“I’ve always dreamed about it,” he said.

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