Macclesfield pre-school leader walking distance to Olympics fundraising for employer

A dedicated pre-school leader is walking the equivalent to Paris, in time for this year's Olympics.

Kate Butler is the deputy manager of Greenhills Pre-School.

Sharing grounds with Marlborough Primary School, the pre-school serves children between the ages of two-and-a-half to their fifth birthday.

The early years educational establishment operates from a pre-fabricated building in the grounds of Marlborough Primary School.

Kate is averaging 5.97 miles per day. That's the equivalent of walking from Macclesfield town centre to Wincle every day. (Image - Macclesfield Nub News)

But a new building is sought, so a crowdfunder and athletic challenge has been launched.

Kate has set herself a sponsored challenge to walk the distance between the pre-school and Austerlitz Bridge, Paris, (where the upcoming Olympic games opening ceremony sets off from).

Of course, holding a top job at the same time, she can't actually walk there, but she is walking the distance around the local area, at the same time as her role in education.

She aims to virtually make it there in time for the opening ceremony on Friday July 26. Kate began this challenge on May 18 and needs to walk 397 miles.

As well as the support of the school, and wider Macclesfield community, Kate has had sup-paw-t from her pooch pal.

This averages at 40 miles per week, way above the average distance the British public walks every seven days.

And to make things trickier, Kate is not counting distance walked during her usual working day, doing it all in what little spare time she has, so this is quite a challenge for her!

Macclesfield Nub News met with Kate at her place of work, to find out more.

"Greenhills Pre-School's current prefab building has been here since 1998", said Kate.

Kate has worked for Greenhills Pre-School for two-and-a-half years.

"The maintenance of it is starting to cost us money. The toilets are stopping working.

"We want to replace the building, before the building becomes a major safety concern.

'It is heartbreaking to spend money on repairs we know that money could be going towards a new building.

"As a prefab building it is coming to the end of its lifespan.

Greenhills has been on the site of Marlborough Primary School since 1982.

"In a few years, it will become unfit for purpose."

Kate is currently 28 days into her 70 day challenge, and the fundraiser, like her step count, is gaining traction.

As of publication, £430 of the £1000 goal has been fundraised so far.

"I wanted it to be like a walking thing, as we are asking the children to do a separate sponsored walk, seeing how many laps of the school they can do," she said.

So far she has walked almost 150 miles.

"We have got a really supportive community, but we only have so many children enrolled. [They currently have 37 pupils]."

The new building would be slightly bigger than the current premises.

In total, £75,000 is required to be raised for the new building. Kate's walk is just one avenue of achieving this.

Other ways to raise the £75,000 will include raffles, festivals and fayres. Kate and Michelle are also tirelessly applying for grants, and have even had wet sponges thrown at them for money.

If crowdfunding was an Olympic sport, Kate is going for the gold medal!

Generosity from the community has also gone beyond this fundraiser.

"There are so many people in the community who will have children that have come through, or will come through at some point, we just hope that doing this will spur on some more donations," revealed Kate.

"We've had parents who run their own businesses and they have so kindly given us £1000 donations, which we are very grateful for."

Walking to work isn't a long distance for Kate, and she isn't counting steps at work, so it is literally five-mile walks every evening that she is racking up towards the target.

The current building has been there since 1998. (Image - Macclesfield Nub News)

Kate's most common walking route has been in Bollington.

"I would like to say a big thank you to anybody who has supported me already," she added.

"It is actually harder that I thought it was going to be, but I'm going to do it."

Some of Kate's fellow colleagues are joining in.

You can also donate in cash, by contacting the pre-school.

Nursery nurse and manager Michelle Thompson added: "Our building desperately needs replacing so we need to fundraise for this."

"Kate has challenged herself to get the ball rolling on our fundraising efforts and we would love to get some community support and let people know what she is doing.

"The pre-school has had so many children go through their doors over the past 40 plus years and we hope that some may wish to show their support and help raise money towards our new building. Thank you for any support."

Should you wish to donate to Kate's fundraiser, you can do so via this link.