{"id":341266,"date":"2023-11-27T16:53:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T06:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=341266"},"modified":"2023-11-28T20:14:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T10:14:34","slug":"charlies-greeted-as-a-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/11\/27\/charlies-greeted-as-a-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie’s Greeted As A Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Charlie Hughes is greeted as a hero as he completes his 5km parkrun on Saturday morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Charlie cuts his 226km cake, watched on by parkrun volunteer Cr Jane Erkens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

November 27, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nanango’s Charlie Hughes recently completed a massive 226km fundraising walk\u00a0 … and has the blisters to prove it.<\/p>\n

But, somehow, the Nanango parkrun group enticed Charlie to do another 5km on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

(We think the cake at the end may have had something to do with it!)<\/p>\n

The parkrunners wanted to congratulate Charlie for the effort he put into raising funds for Vision Australia.<\/p>\n

Charlie has Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and is going blind.<\/p>\n

The keen sportsman’s life changed overnight in 2020 when he applied for a job at the Kilcoy Meatworks \u2026 and failed the eye test.<\/p>\n

In one day he lost his driver’s licence, his job, and could no longer play cricket in the local competition.<\/p>\n

Charlie, accompanied by his support worker Timothy Walsh, walked out of Nanango’s Pioneer Park in the early hours of November 11 to begin his fundraising quest.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He arrived at his destination, the Vision Australia headquarters in Coorparoo, about noon on November 20.<\/p>\n

Tim said the walk lasted a bit longer than originally planned when Charlie needed a break after reaching Fernvale.<\/p>\n

“We took the rest of Thursday off and Friday and then started again on Saturday,” Tim said.<\/p>\n

The delayed arrival caused some confusion at Vision Australia which had planned a welcome for Charlie on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An email message led the team to believe there would be no welcome when he did arrive, a fact which blew up on social media.<\/p>\n

“But in the end, we couldn’t really complain,” Tim said.<\/p>\n

“They had catering and balloons on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“I think they felt a bit of heat from the Facebook post but I don’t think it was Vision Australia as a whole, just a bit of miscommunication.”<\/p>\n

Charlie admitted on Saturday morning that his feet were still sore after his marathon effort but “not as much as last week”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I couldn’t move on Monday,” he said.<\/p>\n

He still bravely completed the Nanango parkrun course and was congratulated by a gauntlet of well-wishers when he walked across the finishing line.<\/p>\n

So far Charlie has raised $8055 for Vision Australia, smashing his $7000 goal.<\/p>\n

Donations to support Charlie\u2019s walk can still be made online<\/a> until the end of this month.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Footnote: southburnett.com.au caught up with Charlie again later on Saturday at the Taabinga State School cricket oval where, despite his sore feet, he was volunteering on the sidelines with a Kingaroy cricket team.<\/em><\/p>\n