10-year-old Thorngrove School student Alfie Cosimini runs 100km in January to raise money for Swings & Smiles

A 10-year-old boy braved rain, wind, snow and ice and ran 100 kilometres in January to raise money for charity.

Alfie Cosimini, a Year 6 student at Thorngrove School, ran the cumulative distance throughout the entire month as part of a fundraising challenge to support Swings & Smiles, a Thatcham-based charity that supports children with special needs.

The young athlete and fundraiser said: “I wanted to raise money for charity and set myself a challenge.”

Alfie completed the first of his century of kilometres in Scotland near Glasgow, before he completed most of them running along routes in Wash Common.

At one time, Thorngrove headteacher Nick Graham spotted Alfie running one evening while it was snowing.

Mr Graham said: “I was driving to the shops while it was snowing and it was freezing cold, and there was Alfie running along about 6 o’clock in the evening in the dark with his mum.”

Alfie ran with his mother, father and brother throughout the challenge and completed it by cutting the 100km into 4km chunks.

One time he ran with his grandparents, who were leading the way on electric bikes along a particularly hilly route.

Alfie said he was happy that his tough physical challenge was over, but he was proud of what he had achieved.

He also didn’t rule out running another 100km next year to support another charity.

Thorngrove’s charity of the year is Swings & Smiles, and the school organises fundraising projects throughout the academic year to support it.