ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD Tom Eggleton is walking 100 miles for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).

His “Ten for Ten” mission - ten miles for ten weekends – has been organised by Tom as a way of saying “thank you” to Dartmouth’s St John’s School, for looking after him for the last seven years.

He’s been joined on walks around Dartmouth with his mum Hettie and dogs Pippa and Snoopy, friends from his class and his scout group.

Tom said: “I love walking with everybody, as I’ve done it with loads of people. It’s been fun and challenging, especially trying to fit the walks in with school and clubs. Thank you to everyone who’s supported me, walking or with sponsorship. Thank you to my teachers and friends, especially Mrs Brown and year six. I’ve had a great time so far.

“I’m raising money for CAFOD to say thank you to St John’s for looking after me for the past seven years and thank you to CAFOD for all they do around the world. I heard about CAFOD in school assemblies and was inspired by the stories I’ve heard. It made me want to do something to raise money for this charity.”

For the walks Tom has designed a logo and poster, spoken to the South West CAFOD rep, got charity t shirts and smashed his sponsorship goal of £250.

Mum Hettie added: “This is entirely down to Tom, and CAFOD have been very supportive. It’s all been done with St John’s School and the caring Catholic community in mind and is designed as a big, huge thank you to them for educating him so well in primary school. He, and we, are very grateful for everything his school has done for him over the past seven years, especially his class teacher Mrs Brown, headteacher Mrs Hamilton and Mrs Bridges in the office, who’ve supported him for so many years. As a family, we are very proud of him for thinking of all this.

“Friends from his class have joined him on some of the walks and already loads of them have been walking. Each of the 20 walks of around five miles each, has been different so people could choose where they joined. His scouts group is also involved and have done some miles with him too. He now only has 15 miles to go.”