A kind-hearted Hitchin woman ran through the pain barrier to raise nearly £2,500 to buy toys for children at Stevenage's Lister Hospital.

Prior to completing her successful fundraiser, sporty Sophie Bichener had practically given up running due to an old injury - but she was determined to complete her charity challenge of running 5k a day to reach her target of 150km.

Sophie had previously donated toys to children treated at the Lister - as she felt it was important to make the experience of being in hospital as good as it can be for youngsters and their families experiencing tough times.

However, given the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the hospital's appeal for toys became urgent, so kind-hearted Sophie decided to volunteer to help raise much-needed funds.

Undaunted by her long-term injury, she pulled on her running shoes and hit the roads, lanes and fields around Hitchin and north Herts, in her bid to raise cash in order to donate toys to sick children.

Sophie told Nub News: "I have been through a lot of physio and doctor appointments to try and put it right, but decided a few years back I probably wouldn't be able to run regularly again.

"Little did I know all I needed was a global pandemic to come along, leaving me much more time in my day to day to really focus on starting slow and strengthening my legs for months before trying to get out and run again.

"Before lockdown I had given up running due to an old injury, but slowly built up my strength and rediscovered my love for it - so it felt like a fitting challenge to really test myself.

"I knew this would be a huge challenge and that I was risking injury - but if I thought if I could try and get 6/7km done a day for the first week I would be ahead of my schedule and then could allow myself some recovery time if I needed it.

"I perhaps didn't factor in that most of this would be in the dark and the rain around my 9-5!"

Back when lockdown started in March 2020, Sophie could barely run 2k without leg pain or generally feeling unfit, after suffering a knee injury during a half marathon six years ago.

Brave Sophie battles pain barrier to deliver

She admits the challenge felt like a huge stretch. But with no little grit as well as heartwarming backing from friends and family she smashed through her initial target of £500.

Within the first week battling Sophie had raised more than £1,000.

However, she started to feel nervous about completing the challenge without incurring further injury.

As the target raced ever nearer she became increasingly fearful a recurrence of her injury could force her to abandon her efforts.

"I didn't want to let anyone down"

Yet, Sophie wasn't prepared to let anyone down.

"I was overwhelmed with the support I received from close friends and family," she explains, adding, "I also received support from people I've never met, mainly through Twitter.

"It was tough to run on back-to-back days, but honestly, it's amazing what the body does when you challenge it."

Happily, Sophie managed to complete the challenge with early £2,500 raised at the last count.

"I had a few of my friends - or should I say 'friends' - tempting me to go to 100 miles for them to double their sponsorship," she recalled with a rueful smile.

"Amazingly I managed it, with runs on Christmas day and throughout the festive period.

"I even hit a personal best 5k and 10k in the last week as well as a new longest distance of 16km."

Determined Sophie finally finished her fundraising efforts on 109 miles/175km while also managing to get toy deliveries to the hospital arranged just before Christmas.

She made sure the orders were placed with wonderful local or sustainable businesses such as Mini Mench and Happy Cat Kids who kindly donated extra toys on top.

Sophie is planning to contribute some of the money to the Magic of Play appeal the Lister are running for larger items such as an interactive play floor.

"Hopefully this will go some way to helping them in what must be a really difficult time."

Donate to Sophie's appeal

If you would like to donate to Sophie's appeal visit her GoFundMe link which has lots of information as well as urgent toy appeal links from the Lister here