Today, 8-year-old Milan from Bolton is starting an epic #FitforLit cycling challenge around the University of Bolton Stadium, home to Bolton Wanderers FC, in an effort to raise £1,000 for the National Literacy Trust.
Milan is passionate about reading. During lockdown, Milan read an incredible 50 books – including titles by David Walliams, J.K. Rowling, William Shakespeare and Nelson Mandela – and his achievements were recognised as “absolutely wonderful” in a special letter from our Patron, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.
Milan also loves playing sports and keeping fit through cycling, football, cricket, tennis, gymnastics, swimming and Bollywood dancing. He also enjoys going camping and hiking with the Cubs and regularly takes his dogs Rolo and Milo for a walk.
From today, Milan will combine his two favourite hobbies in one stellar #FitforLit fundraising challenge. He will cycle 50 laps a day – one lap for every book he read during lockdown – around the University of Bolton Stadium for as many days as he can manage.
You can find out more about Milan’s #FitforLit challenge and sponsor him via his JustGiving page.
Milan wants to help more children discover the magic of reading and the benefits of keeping fit by raising £1,000 for the National Literacy Trust through our #FitforLit Challenge. Our challenge encourages the public to take on a sporting activity with a literacy twist to raise money to help us support the literacy and learning of children most seriously impacted by COVID-19 when they return to school in September.
“I want to make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children. Every child should be able to read and have books of their own. It's a fact children need literacy skills to succeed. It's a fact children who exercise do better at school. Therefore, for me, get #FitforLit makes perfect sense. I'm combining my two favourite hobbies to fundraise to help make a difference to the literacy skills of all children.”
Milan
For more than 20 years, the National Literacy Trust has used the power of sport to motivate more than one million children to improve their literacy skills. As part of this, we have worked with Bolton Wanderers FC to deliver our Premier League Reading Stars programme, which uses the power of football to help reluctant and less able readers in Years 5 and 6 increase their reading motivation, enjoyment and skills. We are therefore delighted that Milan has teamed up with our friends at Bolton Wanderers FC for his #FitforLit Challenge.
“Milan is a sporting and reading legend! Every day I see first-hand just how powerful sport can be at motivating children to read and write, so I have no doubt that Milan’s incredible fundraising challenge will achieve just that, while also raising vital funds for our work. We’re thrilled that Milan has teamed up with our friends at Bolton Wanderers FC for his #FitforLit challenge, as we have worked with the club for many years to get children excited about reading through football. Good luck Milan! We will all be cheering you on.”
Jim Sells, Sport and Literacy Programme Manager