Pride of Britain winners Hughie Higginson and Freddie Xavi are special visitors to Goodison Park on Saturday as they continue a nationwide quest to help local children’s cancer wards. The 12-year-olds will complete two laps of the Goodison turf during half time of Everton’s Premier League match against Southampton in their 100km Football Ground Challenge, which sees them running around the pitch of every one of the 92 Premier League and Football League stadiums with this trip being run number 18.
The challenge is the latest brainchild of the duo, who received national recognition back in 2020, when Hughie was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Best friend Freddie vowed to help raise funds and set himself the challenge of running 2km every day for 50 days, finishing on Christmas Day.
His initial target of £1000 was smashed within days and, as the national media picked up on the feel-good story – with primetime appearances on BBC Breakfast, Granada, Sky Sports and This Morning – word quickly spread and the fund swelled. To date, the boys have raised over £250K for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, and were awarded a British Citizens youth Award last October, in recognition of their fundraising.
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With Hughie now feeling better – and following additional accolades – including a Pride Of Lancashire award and being crowned Young Fundraisers at the Pride Of Britain Awards in November 2021 – the inspirational boys were determined to take on another challenge together. Their 100km Football Ground Challenge kicked off on Boxing Day, 2021, at Burnley’s Turf Moor, where former Clarets duo and current Everton players James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil backed the boys’ headline-making exploits.
Tarkowski even surprised the pals by turning up at their houses with PS5 gaming consoles, soon after Hughie’s original diagnosis, while McNeil threw out the invite to Goodison during a chance meeting late last year. The two boys duly arrive on Merseyside well into their national adventure, ticking off all 92 grounds on the list along with a further eight national stadiums and other notable sporting grounds to take them to the magical target distance.
All money raised at each ground will go directly to the local children's hospital in the area, where they hope the money raised will buy slushies for every child receiving treatment for cancer, which help soothe the pain for youngsters suffering from severe mouth ulcers and sores caused by the side effects of chemotherapy. All the money raised this weekend will go directly to the children’s cancer ward at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
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