A DETERMINED six-year-old Thornbury girl who needed surgery to help her walk is now making her way up and down her street 100 times as part of a charity challenge.

Ezzy Hodge, who has cerebral palsy, has twice undergone surgery in the USA to help her walk. Now she is going to walk up and down her road on the Park Farm estate 100 times, all to raise money for an emergency appeal from Global’s Make Noise, who are supporting small charities helping the people hit by coronavirus.

Ezzy was inspired by her friend Frank Mills, who she was in NICU with, who made national headlines and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds earlier this year with a similar challenge.

She also wanted to emulate Captain Tom Moore by completing the task 100 times. Ezzy started the challenge on Friday and has done 26 lengths of the road so far.

The length of Ezzy's street, Pastoral Road, is around 150 yards.

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Mum Angela said: “She is finding it super tough because she hasn’t been out of the house so is not used to walking such a distance.

“But it’s not phasing her and she is determined to smash her challenge.

“We have been in lockdown for 17 weeks. Because of Ezzy’s cerebral palsy we decided to isolate her as she was already suffering from a chest infection just before the schools closed.

“Apart from a short walk around park farm she has been in the house.

“It has been very tough trying to do schoolwork and trying to do Ezzy’s physiotherapy sessions without the help of any professional services.

“I have just been trying my best and calling upon everything I’ve learnt and watched over the past few years.

“I have learnt a lot and just done my best but it’s not the same as professional intervention and Ezzy is in desperate need of her usual sessions.

“We were given some new splints before lockdown to help support her increased walking range but unfortunately she has gone backwards a little.

“I know once she gets back to her therapy sessions and we do some intensive work with her I’m sure she will be back to her fighting fit self

“We are just so proud of everything she has achieved so far and I know we have more to come.

“As parents we were finding it so difficult to encourage Ezzy to get out of the house and to do a little bit of walking as she’d been in the house for such a long time she was becoming sad and didn’t want to do much walking.

“Having this challenge has given her a focus and a reason for getting out.

“Not only is she raising money for others it’s actually therapy for her to encourage her to get out and do some walking and start to get used to using her legs again.

“Since she started the challenge she’s been doing so much more walking and we’re starting to see the old Ezzy again.”

So far more than £600 has been raised. To donate go to bit.ly/3dv8iK2