Mental health campaigner, 8, walking England's entire coastline for her ‘hero’ dad

An eight-year-old mental health champion is hoping to raise £100,000 by walking the entire coastline of England in honour of her “hero” daddy.

Alba Stogden, who started doing sponsored walks two years ago, has been inspired by her dad Grant Stogden, aged 29, who spent two-and-a-half years in a hospital due to anxiety and depression.

Little Alba has already walked around 600 miles of her epic trek alongside her proud mum, Sophie, also 29. She said she wanted to take on the challenge to raise money for charities who help others going through the same problems as her dad. She added: “It’s amazing and it’s great to raise the money. I really like being outdoors, and it’s really fun going away with my mum."

Alba’s huge challenge will see her walk 2,800 miles around the entire coast of England, something which her mum describes as the youngster’s “biggest” adventure ever. Sophie said: “It’s the biggest thing she has ever done in terms of miles and distance. But it’s just a massive adventure as well as being such a huge fundraiser.”

Sophie said Alba, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, decided to go on her first sponsored walk when she started being home-schooled by her parents around two years ago. She had seen her dad go through difficult times and told her parents she wanted to do something to help.

Sophie said: “Her dad is her hero. She grew up with him in that psychological unit. He needed a lot of intense treatment when she was younger, and she kind of grew up with that. We’re lucky as a family that we got him home, many people don’t and she’s aware of that. So, she’s happy to do anything that raises awareness of that and to have challenging conversations and support charities that are doing incredible things.”

'It’s almost like one big adventure'

Alba now loves nothing more than marching around in her bright yellow wellies, and hasn’t stopped raising money ever since that first walk. Sophie added: “She had this big thing for raising awareness of mental health, and she loves being outside. We put the two together, and set something off. We’ve not stopped since. Alba loves to spend time in the sea and meet new people. It’s almost like one big adventure. The enormity of the fundraising kind of goes over her head."

Alba has already completed a 123-mile trek from Redcar to Spurn Point, in Hull, and it was this walk which gave her the motivation to take on the epic trek she is now undertaking. Sophie and Alba, who started their mission in January, have so far been given free accommodation and food every step of the way by kind strangers.

Now that spring is here, and the nights are getting lighter, they’ll be walking for two weeks each month until the end of the summer. Their aim is to complete their journey by the end of this year.

Sophie said: “During the last months, the weather has been so challenging. We’ve had to come off the cliffs because of how dangerous it was as we’ll walk in any weather, even when there's heavy rain and strong winds. But we’ve never got to a point where we’ve thought ‘we’re not doing this anymore’. We’ve always found a way to get around that. We’ve been given places along the way, from boats to shacks and sheds and yurts to pubs, and we’ve been given free meals too.”

Proud dad Grant said: "I love to see Alba so happy outside and doing what she loves most, which is just amazing.”

Visit Alba’s JustGiving page online to donate money to her charity challenge.