Wilmslow six-year-old walks six miles to help feed Chester Zoo animals

Emily, from Wilmslow, was concerned about the plight of the animals after hearing the zoo could close because of the impact of the coronavirus lockdown.

She decided to raise some money for the zoo, and one of her ideas was being sponsored to walk to the zoo, a distance of 29 miles.

However after her mum Michaela suggested that might be too far she decided to walk one mile for each of her years.

Emily and Michaela walked six miles, setting off from Summerfield village centre, and on to Wilmslow town centre, Alderley Edge and Nether Alderley before ending at the Monks Heath crossroads.

The walk took them four and a half hours, and for the fundraiser Emily dressed as an African Painted Dog, her favourite animal at Chester Zoo.

Emily is a pupil at Lacey Green Primary Academy, and set up a justgiving page to invite donations, raising £1,100 in the process.

Michaela said: “We go to Chester Zoo quite a lot, and that was the first thing she wanted to do when lockdown finished.

“After she heard the zoo could close she wanted to raise money to help feed the animals.

“She initially wanted to do the distance to the zoo, which we worked out was 29 miles, and I said I thought that was way too far.

“She then said - what about six because I’m six?’. The amount we raised was amazing - I couldn’t believe it, and the support we had was also amazing.

“We were updating the trip on Facebook to show where we were, and people were looking out for us.

“We had people we didn’t even know pulling over in cars to say hi to her – she felt like a little celeb.

“She had got up to £500 ready for the walk, and managed to raise a further £610 by the time we had finished it.

“It rained for most of the walk, so we were soaking wet by the end, the wind blew, but that didn’t stop us. Emily didn’t moan once, she had fun, sang and jumped in puddles.

"I would like to thank everybody who sponsored Emily and donated.”