A six-year-old boy with spinal bifida who raised £28k for the NHS has won a special award from the PM.
Frank Mills, from Bristol, only learned to walk 18 months ago managed to walk for 10 metres per day with the aid of his walking frame.
He had set out to raise £99 to match Captain Tom Moore’s age when he completed his record-breaking walk but, in the end, he managed to achieve 3,000 times that target figure.
In awarding the Point of Light to Frank, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said: “He was as brave and brilliant as Captain Tom”.
Frank’s mother, Janet, set up a JustGiving page and shared Frank’s story – with the target set for just £99.
She said: “After four weeks in lockdown, the family came across Captain Tom’s daily fundraising walk - with his walking frame, and Frank just said ‘I want to do that’.
“So we grabbed hold of that magic moment of motivation and we took his walker outside for him and chalked out 10 metres on the pavement with a start and finish line and two metre ‘you can do it’ markers”.
She continued: “Frank’s enthusiasm was not just surprising, but invigorating, and as he shouted at one of our neighbours to sponsor him, we thought why not?
“So we quickly put something up on JustGiving and shared the link on Facebook and, from then it really took off.
“We couldn’t believe the response”.
Born with spina bifida, Frank has had on-going top-class NHS care at Bristol Children’s Hospital, as well as in his community.