The five-year-old granddaughter of St Albans City FC manager Ian Allinson has raised more than an incredible £11,000 for the Garden House Hospice Care home in Letchworth Garden City by riding her bike for one mile a day.
Betty-Leigh Allinson has only just learnt how to ride a bike, but that hasn’t stopped her from getting on it every day and has even had football clubs from all around sending her shirts to wear on the cycle.
David Beckham’s Inter Miami are among the many clubs to have sent over a shirt for her to wear, as well as local clubs such as St Albans City, Hemel Hempstead Town and Watford.
Speaking to StAlbansNews, Betty-Leigh’s mother, Faye said: “Betty-Leigh was supposed to be going to Euro Disney this summer with her grandparents but unfortunately it has had to be cancelled.
“She decided to give the £7 she had saved to her grandmother’s workplace, the Garden House Hospice Care Home, and then wanted to give even more.
“We are so incredibly proud of what she has managed to achieve, we all didn’t expect her to raise this much money but the fact she has is amazing considering she’s only just learnt how to ride a bike.”
Football runs in the Allinson family, with Ian being the St Albans City manager and Betty-Leigh’s father Lee being the manager of Hendon FC and formerly the assistant manager at the Saints.
Faye continued: “She absolutely loves football and finds it amazing that all these football clubs have sent their shirts to us, and she gets really excited whenever she sees the amount of money raised has gone up.
“We were initially going to continue to do this until the lockdown ended or until she returned to school at the start of June, but we’ve decided that we’re going to keep going until she’s worn all the shirts that we’ve received.”
David Beckham sent a signed Inter Miami shirt to the family and even mentioned Betty-Leigh on his Instagram story, which allowed more people to see the fundraising page.
To donate to the Allinson family’s cause, head to justgiving.com/fundraising/bettyleighallinsonamileaday
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