Triathlete gets rare honour for fund-raising

Sarah Hughes was presented with the Paul Harris Fellowship award by Bognor Regis Rotary Club in recognition of her one-woman

campaign in aid of children's charities.

The club has given only 11 of the awards, named after the movement's founder, since it began in the early years of the last century.

The Rotarians also gave Sarah a 500 cheque for Chestnut Tree House children's hospice.

She visited the hospice to present the donation. It took her total fundraising for the past ten years of competing in races in which she has been among the top athletes to 51,000.

Of this, more than 23,000 has gone to the hospice at Angmering.

Sarah (54), of Manor Close, said: "I was amazed to be given the Fellowship.

"It's such a big award to be given and for somebody who is not part of the Rotary community. It's really nice to be recognised for what I have done. Raising money for children spurs me on.

"I will help them for as long as I am able to do so. I have four grown-up children and to lose a child must be the worst thing ever.

"If I can make their lives happier, or longer, then that has to be a good thing."

Chestnut Tree House fundraiser Sarah Arnold said: "Sarah has been a loyal supporter of the hospice for five years and is a real inspiration to all of us."

Sarah's athletic ambitions this year are focused firmly on the World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver between June 6-8.

She has high hopes of coming back from Canada with a medal as one of the best women on the planet in the Olympic distances of a one-mile swim, 26-mile cycle ride and six-mile run.

Her next birthday will make her among the youngest competitors in the 55-60 age group at the championships to add an advantage to her

fitness.

"I'm really hopeful of getting a medal," she said.