AFTER a year jampacked with fundraising activities, a fitness group in Warrington has raised more than £15,000 for charity.

She Is Strong Fitness is owned by Padgate resident Clare Mannion.

Clare was originally inspired to begin fundraising during the lockdown by her brother-in-law Tony Rankin.

During Covid, Tony, who enjoyed fitness and the outdoors, was sadly diagnosed with terminal cancer so he encouraged those close to him to ‘get out and do all of these things I want to do’.

Clare did just that and decided to fundraise along the way. That year, the She Is Strong group raised £27k for St Rocco’s Hospice who cared for Tony. And each year, the group members choose a different charity to fundraise for.

This year, they chose the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA).

Warrington Guardian:

Previous speaking to the Warrington Guardian, Clare said: “We are Warrington-based and there’s a lot of rugby fans in our member group and a few of the girls were saying you know that support that Rob Burrows and Kevin Sinfield have got for each other, that is like us and that is what we do for each other and it was just sort of resonating with them.

“We do things as a group, we do things for a team and we are in it for each other.

“We always have each other's backs, so it was a mix of people connecting to that as well as the MNDA.”

The group has taken on various different fundraising activities this year including a walk from The Totally Wicked Stadium to The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

They also climbed Scafell Pike and completed the Windermere Triathlon.

And most recently, Clare hosted a neon dance-a-thon event where she led 80s and 90s fitness routines for two-and-half hours.

In total, the group has raised £15,272 so far.

To donate, visit here.