Eight-year-old aspiring footballer Eden Kosh has taken a leaf out of the late Sir Captain Tom Moore's book by taking on a colossal challenge for a charity close to his heart.
Fundraising with The Real Team Katie for Children with Cancer UK, Eden hopes to raise funds and awareness for the charity, which supported his friend Katie through her battle with Leukaemia.
Eden said on his JustGiving page: "This charity is very close to my heart. My dad ran the London Marathon for The Real Team Katie for Children with Cancer UK in 2015. Katie's story inspired me to use this challenge as a fund raising opportunity."
Starting as a way to proactively use his lockdown time back in March, Eden's challenge evolved from a football training challenge set by his coaches at St Albans City FC to an all-guns-blazing charity event.
At the start of lockdown, Eden - who also plays for Luton Town - managed to complete 28 keepy uppies in a row, but with hard work and perseverance has reached his goal, surpassing an impressive 1,000 continuous kick-ups in just one sitting.
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Eden's impressive feat of 1,317 kick-ups required both physical and mental strength, strapping up his feet to ease dermatitis and sores caused from the ball hits during practice and previous attempts.
Originally setting out to raise £1,000, Eden has so far raised over £1,500 for the children's cancer charity, but he and his dad David hope to receive donations on a much wider scale, much like the beloved Sir Captain Tom.
Proud dad David said: "It is a massive feat that he's done. He's spent hours and hours doing it every single day, and this was his way - because he's quite talented at football - of finding a way of raising money.
"We're hoping to raise another couple of grand, that'd be great. Charities at the moment are having a really hard time of it. We're very proud of him.
David explained the emotional fatigue involved in Eden's challenge: "The amount of times he'd get to six or seven hundred, and it'd drop so he'd have to start again - the physical side of it is once you've committed to it, it's draining. You have to go back to it two or three hours later, once you've got a bit of energy back."
"Eden's wanting to surpass that number [of keepy uppies] now, he's going to keep practicing, and that's his next target, but this number hasn't been done very often for an eight-year-old."
To donate to Eden's phenomenal challenge, visit his JustGiving page.
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