Friends walk from Scarborough Castle to Whitby Abbey to raise money for girl with rare cancer

From left Lee Sunderland and Jamie Dodds near the finish line. Picture from Lee Sunderland.

Lee Sunderland, a bricklayer from Selston, Nottinghamshire, first heard about the plight of Anna Drysdale through a social media post by musician Jack Savoretti.

In February 2017, Anna was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, age five.

She has since undergone rounds of chemotherapy and surgery to remove tumours and is currently in remission for a second time though the risk of further recurrences is high and likely.

From left Jamie Dodds and Lee Sunderland, at the start of their walk. Picture from Lee Sunderland.

After she was approved for a new targeted therapy treatment for the prevention of recurrence of Osteosarcoma at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, her parents began fundraising £460,000 for the trip to New York.

Lee said: "[Anna's story] struck a chord with me because I've got a daughter the same age and I just felt it was the right thing to do to raise some money for her.

"I love North Yorkshire, we could have walked 20 miles anywhere but we thought it would be nice to do it along the coast so decided on that route."

Along with his work friend Jamie Dodds, who also has a young daughter, Lee walked 25.5 miles from Scarborough Castle to Whitby Abbey on Saturday December 28, a route which took nearly 52 thousand steps.

Lee added: "We just want to raise awareness of @goteamanna and the campaign, and ask people to make a small donation."

The pair are asking the public to donate to Anna's fund via the Go Team Anna JustGiving page, which can be found here.