11-year-old Bucks boy raises thousands for hospital that saved his life
Sebbie Harris from Farnham Common has completed his month-long challenge to run 5km every day
An 11-year-old boy from Buckinghamshire who nearly died from a rare post-Covid condition has completed a challenge to run 5km every day for a month, raising around £3,500 for the hospital that helped save his life.
Sebbie Harris, from Farnham Common, is supporting Oxford Hospitals Charity after spending 10 days in hospital two years ago with a rare post-Covid condition.
Sebbie was diagnosed with PIMS-TS, a rare inflammatory condition linked to Covid-19, after doctors carried out extensive tests to determine why his organs were beginning to shut down.
His mum, Louisa Harris, said the idea for the challenge came unexpectedly after Sebbie spent years finding it difficult to open up about his experience.
She said: “It was obviously really traumatic at the time and he hasn’t wanted to talk about it for two years and suddenly something has just turned over in his mind and he’s just said, ‘Mummy, I really want to do something to give something back to everyone who looked after me when I was so poorly.’
“He said, ‘I want to do something significant. I don’t just want to run a kilometre a day. I want to do something that’s hard.’”
Louisa explained that Sebbie first became ill with what appeared to be a normal childhood sickness before his condition rapidly worsened.
She said: “He wasn’t shifting a temperature of 40 degrees and there were a lot of people who couldn’t work out what was going on.”
After being transferred by ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Sebbie underwent surgery, intensive care treatment and tests for a number of serious conditions before doctors diagnosed PIMS-TS.
Louisa said: “Essentially what happens with PIMS-TS is that your body continues to release lots of white blood cells to fight the disease and it means all of your organs enlarge."
Doctors treated Sebbie with steroids after ruling out other possible illnesses and he began to recover.
As Sebbie came towards the end of the challenge, which is around the same distance as three and a half marathons, he said it has been tough at times.
“For the first half of it, my body was like, ‘What’s happening here?’ and I think now it’s eased a bit and I've gone, ‘Okay, this is realistic now,'” he said.
While also playing cricket and football and attending coding club and cello lessons, Sebbie said he has had to find ways to fit in all the kilometres.
"I've been trying to do a bit at school as well if there's a good window, like at like lunchtime, I would be able to try and run a few laps on our school track to squeeze them in," he said.
He added that being able to run so much now has special meaning because of how unwell he once was.
“When I came out of ICU I couldn’t walk, so I thought it was quite fitting,” he said.