AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD girl is planning to scale Yorkshire’s Three Peaks to boost a charity which helps vulnerable and isolated children and young people in York.

Roxanne Hall, of Poppleton, hopes her trek will raise £300 for The Island, which provides mentoring to enhance youngsters’ confidence, self-esteem and resilience levels.

She said: “Wow! I have never done any fundraising before and I am so looking forward to it.

“Everyone says it is going to be super difficult, so I am practising by going on some long walks with my dad. Wish me luck, I think I’m going to need it!”

The Poppleton Ousebank Primary School pupil, who has so far raised £200, said she had decided to support The Island because she was keen to help local children going through difficult times.

Her father Rob said she came home one day from school and said she wanted to raise some money for charity, and he had gone online and created a list of local charities so she could choose one.

He added that they planned to scale the Peaks over two days on a forthcoming weekend when the weather forecast was good - taking on Pen-y-ghent and Whernside on the Saturday, and Ingleborough on the Sunday, walking about 20 miles.

A charity spokeswoman said that if Roxanne hit her target, it would guarantee 20 weeks of mentoring for a local child.

She said The Islands’ one-to-one mentoring service was having high success rates in transforming the mental, emotional and social wellbeing of isolated children.

Since becoming a registered charity in 2008, it had enhanced the quality of life of over 2,500 vulnerable York children, she added.

Mentoring services manager Nigel Poulton said: “All of us here have great admiration for Roxanne undertaking this walk to raise much needed funds to help more vulnerable children and young people in York.

“We do wish her all the very best and our sincere thanks not only to Roxanne but to all those generously sponsoring her in this amazingly compassionate fundraising walk.”

*To support Roxanne, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/roxy-p-hall