AN eleven-year-old schoolgirl from York is cycling the distance of a marathon to raise money to help young homeless people in the city.

Milly Trueman is in Year 7 at The Mount School in York and took the initiative after hearing that the school would return to online learning from the start of term.

She decided to use her time during the current lockdown and online school to make a difference. “I will be cycling a marathon to try to raise money for Safe and Sound Homes (SASH York) who help homeless young people in the UK to find housing.

"Over Christmas I noticed the number of homeless people on the streets in the town where I live and thought how hard that must be,” said Milly.

Milly’s mother, Ruth Thomson, said: “This was entirely Milly’s idea. As a parent, it was good to hear that, firstly, Milly noticed the problem, and secondly that she thought, ‘That’s not right and I’d like to do something towards helping’. We talked with her about what she could actually do, what would be sensible, and how to go about it.”

SASH say the lockdown has exacerbated youth homelessness in the city with almost half of the young people who come to the charity facing homelessness because of family breakdown.

Jenna Goodridge, Community Fundraiser at SASH, said: "It costs around the £27 mark to support a young person for one night. Every penny raised, by super fundraisers like Milly, really does make a huge difference to local young people,” said .

Milly, who last year organised a run at school for Comic Relief and has previously taken part in a fundraising running challenge outside of school, said: “I’ve currently completed 13.5 miles and have been doing bits on the exercise bike during the breaks” in her lesson timetable.

To sponsor Milly go to: JustGiving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ruth-thomson14

Mount School principal, Adrienne Richmond, said: “Creating an environment where every girl is valued, enabled to flourish and given the confidence to know they can achieve is at the heart of The Mount School ethos. One of our key aims is to encourage girls to make a positive contribution to our changing world, and Milly’s courageous initiative here is testament to that and reflects our Quaker values of social justice and equality. We are all very proud that Milly has set herself this challenge and I wish her the very best of luck. I hope the wider community will support Milly’s efforts and I look forward to hearing of her success.”