Football-mad youngsters have raised almost £1,000 for two charities by travelling 765 miles over the course of 28 days.

Each member of the Canvey Island Girls Under-14s team is running, walking or cycling 51 miles – which is equal to the distance between the Gulls’ Park Lane home and Wembley Stadium.

The third national lockdown has resulted in the youngsters’ competitive action being put on hold and, in their spare time, they set a challenge of raising vital funds for charity.

The money accumulated from the fundraiser will be shared between Dementia UK and Riding for the Disabled.

Lee Burns, coach of the Canvey side, is proud of the talented teenagers helping others during the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: “The character the girls have shown is fantastic and I’d be surprised if there was another team whose players were so keen to raise money while they can’t spend time on the pitch.

“We had a lot of new girls join us at the start of the season but they have all come together and bonded so well.

“They all want to get back to playing football but they know that isn’t possible at the moment, so they wanted to keep their team spirit going by raising money for charity together.

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“After getting involved in a running challenge last month, we wanted to make sure the girls kept active and asked them to pick the charities they wanted to donate funds to.

“They chose Dementia UK and Riding for the Disabled - one of our players’ sisters works closely with the charity - and they are smashing the challenge so far.”

The 15 talented footballers, aged between 13 and 14, have given themselves until February 20 to cover 765 miles between them.

But the youngsters appear to be on course to comfortably beat t heir target, with them having already covered 230 miles.

Lee, a 41-year-old from Canvey, added: “The girls have been continuing with their running and having two personal training sessions each week.

“This is my third season in charge of Canvey and we won the league title in each of the first two campaigns.

“But seeing them take on a challenge like this is fantastic.”

To donate, visit tinyurl.com/y44werf4.