Haverhill school helps walkers celebrate after completing 115-mile fund-raising journey for hospitals in Nottingham and Bury St Edmunds

A team’s 115-mile walk for charity was completed at a Haverhill school last Friday, where hundreds of people turned out to greet them.

Team Harper arrived at Westfield Primary Academy to a celebratory atmosphere having walked the miles over four days, starting at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham.

The walk was led by Dean Davis, a physical trainer who runs Kedington Fitness Centre and organised to raise money for the two hospitals that saved the life of his daughter Harper, eight, a pupil at Westfield.

Speaking last Friday, Dean also gave his thanks to everyone to donated and the people who have helped: “We’re absolutely amazed to have hit £6,000 and raised lots of awareness along the way.

“The people that came on the journey with me were absolutely amazing and we carried each other through. They’re the heroes.

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“There’s also been a lot going on in the background and I want to give my thanks to the support team and everyone at Kedington Fitness who have been behind us all the way.”

In 2018, while on a family holiday in Norfolk, Harper contracted E-coli and a rare secondary infection called hemolytic uremic syndrome which affected her kidneys and bowel.

Harper’s health deteriorated and she was taken to the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds and was then swiftly transferred to a specialist unit at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

There then began numerous round trips to the East Midlands for Dean, 48, and his 43-year-old wife Melissa as Harper, the youngest of their four children, was being treated.

It was those trips that inspired the walk, called Harper’s Journey Home.

Harper had to have a kidney transplant with the organ donated by Dean’s sister Donna Davis, 58.

Dean was joined in Team Harper by Dean and James Willett, Dan Plumber, Karen Boxall, Donna and Daisy Mai Brown and support drivers Simon Miller and Adam Thompson.

On Harper, Dean said: “She’s been the focus throughout it all.

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“When we were at the Nottingham hospital on Monday evening, the memories all came flooding back. She’s been through hell and back, and we just went for a little walk!”

The money – which has now gone beyond £7,000 – is being split between Nottingham Hospitals Charity and My WiSH Charity, which raises funds for West Suffolk Hospital.

Tanya Fifield, My WiSH fundraising officer, said: “Following Dean and the Kedington Fitness team on this journey has been fantastic.

“This challenge was emotionally and physically hard and we cannot thank them enough for their determination to keep on walking.

“We were lucky enough to be there when they completed their challenge, and everyone gave them the hero’s welcome home they thoroughly deserved.”

The gofundme page is still open at: