A charity fundraising effort by Hitchin Belles FC to help a young girl battling a rare form of cancer has been boosted by a number of well-known faces.

The girls and women's football club in our town came up with a novel plan to help raise money for Hattie Brattan, who is fighting rhabdomyosarcoma, cancer of the soft tissue.

Brave Hattie lives with her sister, Ellie, brother George, mum Helen and dad Paul in the town.

The Hitchin youngster has faced her battle with determination and dignity while being treated at various hospitals including London's Great Ormond Street and Addenbrookes in Cambridge.

Family and friends have supported Hattie through nine rounds of chemotherapy, as well as proton beam therapy in Manchester, before a year of maintenance chemotherapy.

Inspired by her courage, coaches and girls from club agreed to run or walk 3,430 miles, starting this week, for four weeks, with the intention to raise funds for Hattie, and help her brave battle.

The precise figure relates to the furthest distance between stadiums at Euro 2021, which is set to take place across the continent - from the Azerbajian capital Baku to Bilbao, in the Basque country of northern Spain.

Celebrities boost Hattie and the Belles

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Hattie and the all girls undertaking the challenge have already received motivational videos from Joe Wicks and Guillem Balague - who have now been joined by comedians Paul Whitehouse and Russell Kane.

The legendary Whitehouse, renowned for his hilarious characters on The Fast Show, sent a message which said he wanted to send 'lots of love and support' to Hattie and the Hitchin Belles.

Whitehouse then self-deprecatingly morphed into his famed character 'DJ Mike Smash', who is renowned for talking about his charity work.

Whitehouse's video was joined by funnyman Kane, who had dressed up in 'gym gear including donning a comic headband' to send his best to Hattie and the team.

The multi-award winning comedian, presenter, actor, author and scriptwriter who appears on the Steph Show as well regular gigs on Live At Apollo, Celebrity Juice and I Am Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Now said: "Good luck Hattie and the Hitchin Belles on your charity run.

"I'm in my gear myself because every day of my life I work both on 'pecs' and 'guns'', before proceeding to kiss his right arm in reference to Ben Stiller's over the top character White Goodman in the film Dodgeball.

Comically flexing his muscles, with a grunt, Kane added: "Tell me this won't motivate you to exercise harder. Good luck."

Organiser and Belles coach, Jeremy Wood said: "We really appreciate the support.

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"We sent the video to Hattie's family and they were amazed by the interest and said they were really thankful for the support."

At the time of writing the cash raised so far is nearing an incredible £5,000 in a matter of days.

To donate

All funds raised from by Hitchin Belles 'Baku to Bilbao' challenge go to the wider 'Hattie's Rainbow of Hope Appeal' via the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group.

The much-needed cash will go into rhabdomyosarcoma research as well as kinder and more effective treatments for youngsters battling the disease.

Donate here

Read Hitchin Nub News as we chart the progress of the Hitchin Belles in their bid to boost brave Hattie