A HOMETOWN football hero and the Bluebirds first team coach have joined forces and completed a 100 km challenge for charity.

Barrow footballer and Manchester city player Georgia Stanway and the Bluebirds’ coach and community manager Craig Rutherford both completed the challenge in May on behalf of people living with Motor Neurone Disease.

The challenge was done on behalf of the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation which was set up by ex-Liverpool and Bradford footballer Stephen Darby and close friend and British Forces veteran Chris Rimmer.

Both Chris and Stephen suffer from Motor Neurone Disease and created the charity with the aim to spread awareness for the condition. The aim of the challenge is to walk or run 100km during the month of May.

Georgia and her team threw their support behind the cause. She updated her process on the 100km on Twitter and urged fans in Barrow to donate.

Georgia said: “Taking part in the 100km for me has been unbelievable. We set out that we were going to help the cause, raise as much money as we can because I’m a patron for the Darby Rimmer foundation.

“I recently had a family friend who passed due to MND so it’s really close to my heart.

“We put out a Facebook message saying if you can give £10 then you can take part. Once it was out it just boomed, and we are now close to £4000. The biggest thing is that we’ve got the whole town involved.”

Craig completed the challenge in less than 2 weeks. He was supported by his son Kayden, 10, who has completed 39km so far himself.

Craig said: “The bigger story is the amount of people from Barrow who are doing it. I’m lucky to have the football club’s profile to advertise it, but there have been so many other people in town taking it on and representing Barrow.

“For me I’ve been a small part of it, and I’m inspired by the rest of the people very much. Kayden joins with me and we will continue running and get him over the 100 mark by the end of this month.

“It was through Georgia that I got involved with this. I thought it’s there to raise money and awareness, so we could get more information out there and spread the word.”

MND is a neurological condition which affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. It affects the arms and legs and severely hinders people’s ability to look after themselves. There is no known cure for MND. For information visit darbyrimmermnd.co.uk.