Lucy Edmunds, who lives in Staunton, walked the full nine miles of the Malvern Hills on June 30th to raise vital funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

Lucy decided to conquer the Malvern Hills because Great Ormond Street has played a pivotal role in enabling her to walk up a hill at all.

Lucy said “I am walking the hills that I couldn’t walk before for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity because they mended my heart, I want to thank them.”

Lucy was born with a hole in her heart, but 2016 she developed another complication: her right ventricle became constricted by a muscle bundle and her heart was having to work extra hard just to pump the blood out. This is both painful, and it made her out of breath, and the harder the heart worked, the bigger the muscle bundle became and the blockage got worse. Lucy was struggling to keep up with her friends, and was upset to have her singing affected (by breathlessness) as well as always coming last in every race at Sports Day. Going for a walk with her parents was no fun and climbing a hill was just painful.

In June 2016, Lucy had major open heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital and only five weeks later, she bounded up one of the hills of the Malverns: “They were the first hills I walked up after my op. It felt so free.”

Almost exactly two years after her operation on June 30th, 2018, she did her fundraising Malvern walk, covering 34,365 steps which took her 7.5 hours in the searing heat.

So far she has raised a massive £1,730, despite her original goal of £500. She covered all the Malvern peaks - which meant doing a few extra trips up to outlying hills, and took the paths over the tops of the peaks. When asked if she enjoyed it, she said: “Yes, most of it!”

Lucy was the only one who covered the whole distance - her Mum Cecilia did the first 1/3 with her, then her Dad, Keith, did the middle 1/3 and her family friend, Sally, walked the last 1/3.

Laura Savory, Senior Fundraising Manager at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity said: “We’re so grateful to Lucy for her generosity and support. The money raised will help to make a huge difference to young patients and families from across the UK”.

You can make a donation at the website: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lucy-edmunds07