TWO Somerset students, both under the age of 11 have raised over £2500 for charity by running 300 miles of Cornwall Coastal pathways and climbing Mount Toubkal in Africa.

Freddie Storey (ten years old) started the run in May 2023 when he was still at school in Cornwall and aimed to finish within the year.

He ended up moving schools to Somerset, making the goal impossible, so he pushed the goal back to finishing the run by the end of this year. 

To make up for lost time Freddie ended up running between 12 and 18 miles a day and over 33 miles over 48 hours straight on two occasions.

Many runs involved his family staying on location overnight due to the distance. They often slept in the back of the car and in total Freddie has run 304.6 miles which is the same as running from Hampshire to Northumberland.

He has also ascended over 45,000 feet which is over 1.5 mount Everests.

His parents calculated that he has spent over 80 hours in cars or on buses getting to or back from his runs. 

“He has never done anything like this before, it was a challenge really that we both set each other,” his dad, James Storey said proudly. “With the Cornish Coast on our doorstep, it was an obvious choice as was the charity which is the Cornwall Wildlife Trust whom he has raised over £2,500 for.”

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Watching Freddie’s amazing progress inspired his younger brother Max (eight years old), who wanted his own challenge.

Max spent well over 100 hours either in the car with Freddie enroute to and from his runs or sitting waiting to take him to come home again.

“He needed his own time to shine,” Mr. Storey said.

Max’s parents put their heads together and decided that something a bit shorter in time frame yet just as inspiring would be to climb a mountain.

Mount Toubkal seemed like the perfect compromise, at over 4,000 meters and the highest Mountain in North Africa (not far off the size of Mount Kilimanjaro it's more famous cousin), this seemed like a suitable challenge for young Max. 

Max and his dad started in 25 degrees and finished in less than zero. It took 2.5 days to reach the summit with two nights sleeping in tents up on the mountain. 

“We were sleeping in ski socks, ski trousers, t-shirt, two rugby shirts, ski jacket and woolly hats whilst tucked up in our sleeping bags” Mr. Storey added.

Day one was eight hours hiking, day two was a 4am start in the dark and took nine hours, and day three was a “comparative breeze” at just three hours downhill.

Max started to get altitude sickness symptoms quite badly at the top of the mountain, so it was an urgent climb back down to get his symptoms under control.

It is safe to say that on return to sea level he had not only recovered but felt ten feet tall and was understandably extremely proud of himself.

He is one of the youngest people to have climbed Mount Toubkal and indeed any mountain in Africa of such a magnitude according to Mr. Storey. 

Both boys have developed a "real taste for challenges" and have committed to tackling more peaks as well as running the Somerset, Dorset and both Devon Coastlines also for charity.

Freddie is also doing a cycle ride with three others between Bodmin in Cornwall and Sparkford in Somerset which is 140 miles over three consecutive days and nights. 

They have also received some wonderful encouragement from GB Olympians as they progressed in their individual challenges such as from Paula Radcliffe, Sally Gunnell and Liz McColgan which has been great motivation for them.