TWO young members of Basildon's Twinning Association have been making great strides for charities.

15-year old Ryan Donnelly from Wickford set the pace by raising more than £1,500 for Cancer Research completing its 10km UK Winter Run event, while another young member, Llyam Curtis, embarks today (Monday, 1 March) on a month-long walking challenge to support the Prostate Cancer charity.

Both youngsters are members of the association's Young Twinners section and they have received support from the borough's twin towns of Heiligenhaus in Germany and Meaux in France.

Ryan originally set himself a target of £300 but he has smashed that. You can still contribute via his fundraising page here.

Llyam will be bidding to walk 11,000 steps every day in March and his target is £500. He is already well on course having raised £390 and if you want to help him reach his goal you can do so via this link.

Beauchamps High School pupil, Ryan covered 10km during the worst of the winter's weather last month, striding out just as the tail end of Storm Darcy hit south Essex bringing snow and freezing conditions.

His dad Robert of Maitland Road said: "We are really proud of Ryan, particularly considering we initially told him to aim for £300.

"He wanted to complete the 10km in a quick time but the snowy conditions meant that went out of the window and he took 51 minutes.

"It's a difficult time to raise money for charity because of Covid-19 but he got a lot of support from the likes of Germany and France so thanks to the Twinning Association."