Eight-year-old Asher Salisbury from Worthing decided to take on the 5k Superhero in the City run last weekend to help raise money despite his own health issues.
Asher in the Alex
Asher has a really good understanding of what poorly children go through. He has been treated for a serious kidney condition since he was four months old, which has meant he has spent a lot of his young life visiting hospital for various treatments.
However, during each hospital stay Asher and his family were always thankful for the support they received from the medical staff and the Play Team, not to mention the toys he could play with and the gifts he received.
Those small acts of kindness can make a real difference during a hospital stay and Asher wanted to make sure other children were helped to make their time in hospital just that little bit better. Which led him to want to do some fundraising for Rockinghorse, the official charity of the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital.
Asher’s mum Bernice explains more: “We found out about Asher’s condition when he was so young and since then he’s had to have regular blood tests, scans and surgery along with having to avoid infections and take regular courses of anti-biotics.
“It’s a life-long condition and means that Asher has had to spend a lot of his early years in hospital. This isn’t nice for any child but the support he gets from everyone at the Alex has been amazing.
“Despite his own condition, Asher has always wanted to help other children and while we were home-schooling, we looked to see if we could find a good challenge to help us get out and about and keep fit.”
It was at this point that they heard about the Superhero in the City 5K run. Asher and his mum thought this was a great challenge and a brilliant way of raising money for Rockinghorse to help continue all the fantastic support they provide for children in hospital.
The event is aimed at getting individuals and families to run, walk, jog or scoot for 5k dressed in a superhero outfit to raise money for charity and Asher made sure he had his outfit ready. The main run is taking place on 28 April but due to other commitments with school and clubs, Asher chose to undertake his run last weekend.
Asher with his medal
“He was really excited and enthusiastic about doing the run and was really good at training to make sure he was ready for the day itself,” said Bernice. “And he’s so proud to have raised so much money!”
And despite it being a really physical challenge, Asher managed to complete the distance with a little help from his four-legged friends, commenting: “It was hard but fun because I had my family and dogs with me to encourage me!”
Lucy Pond, Challenge Fundraising Manager at Rockinghorse was really impressed with Asher’s achievement: “All our fundraisers are special but when we see younger people taking their time to fundraise for other children it really is amazing. And then when it’s someone who has experienced being in hospital themselves it makes it even more special!
“Thanks so much to Asher for training so hard and raising so much money for Rockinghorse. It all helps to make sure that other children’s hospital experiences can be as good as Asher’s.”
We have a range of marathon, half marathon and challenge events that you can sign up to and raise money like Asher. Just take a look at the ‘Events’ section on our website at for more information.
