{"id":294849,"date":"2021-02-22T12:18:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T02:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=294849"},"modified":"2021-02-23T17:51:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T07:51:13","slug":"harry-dives-into-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/02\/22\/harry-dives-into-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Dives Into Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Durong swimmer Harry Allsop has raised $2085 so far for the Starlight Children’s Foundation (Photo: Jamie Allsop)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 22, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Durong youngster is making a big splash in the world of fundraising after hearing about a toddler diagnosed with leukaemia.<\/p>\n

Harry Allsop, 13, is in Year 8 at Dalby Christian College.<\/p>\n

Just before Christmas he found out that the four-year-old son of a family friend had been diagnosed with leukaemia.<\/p>\n

Harry’s mum, Jamie, said her son was quite upset and became determined to try to help in some way.<\/p>\n

Then he learned the Starlight Children’s Foundation – which supports sick children – had launched a swimming challenge.<\/p>\n

“Because he’s okay at swimming, Harry thought this is something I can do,” Jamie said.<\/p>\n

The Super Swim challenge was to swim 32km in 30 days.<\/p>\n

So far Harry has swum an amazing 40km and has raised $2085 for the children’s charity, putting him in the top 100 of Super Swim fundraisers across Australia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harry has been doing laps of both the outside (50m) and inside (25m) pools at Dalby to clock up his kilometres, fitting it them in between schoolwork and other commitments.<\/p>\n

“He tries to do at least one kilometre every day, but one weekend did six kilometres before breakfast!” Jamie said.<\/p>\n

“The next Saturday, he did seven kilometres before lunch.”<\/p>\n

To put that into context: seven kilometres is 280 laps of a 25m pool …<\/strong><\/p>\n

“He just kept on doing laps,” Jamie said.\u00a0“He was quite tired afterwards.”<\/p>\n

Harry’s original goal was to raise $500, which he has easily surpassed but he’s hoping to raise even more dollars – and do more laps – before the challenge ends on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He has never done anything like this before, which makes his determination even more remarkable.<\/p>\n

He’s being mostly doing freestyle but has also included laps of butterfly to help break up the boredom.<\/p>\n

And the message from Harry on his fundraising page?\u00a0 “Eat my bubbles leukaemia!”<\/p>\n