Florence Bark's dad takes to the road on 100 mile walk to raise money for family's new charity

The first big event for the Be More Fab Children’s Cancer Charity has kicked off with a walk from Corby to Sheffield, where Florence has been treated for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

The eight-year-old had a successful bone marrow transplant in the Yorkshire, against the odds, after medics had initially struggled to find a match for her.

People from Corby raised more than £600,000 for the little girl when she was first diagnosed, and she has since gone on to appear on This Morning, was invited to a Taylor Swift concert and gain 150,000 followers on her uplifting TikTok channel.

But as well as the positives, Florence has struggled with graft versus host disease and has been left on oxygen and in a wheelchair. Her parents Stacey and Andrew are praying she can be added to the lung transplant list soon.

Now Andrew, the former headteacher of Kingswood Primary Academy, is taking on the long walk with his pals in order to raise cash for the charity that has been set up in honour of Florrie. They’ll carry 20lb – the weight of Florrie – with them and then they’ll carry the superstar herself for the last mile.

You can donate here.

The BeMoreFab Children’s Cancer Charity hopes to raise cash for others in Florrie’s situation.

Andrew and pals left Corby yesterday (Friday) to take on the three-day walk which its hoped will culminate at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground for their opening game of the season on Sunday.

Stacey told the Northants Telegraph: “I really wanted to do it with him but one of us needs to be with Florrie so some of his friends are doing it with him.

"It’s a long way but they just say if they feel like giving up they’ll look at a picture of Florrie and it’ll keep them going.”

After Florrie’s successful bone marrow transplant she became ill again and it was discovered she was suffering from graft versus host disease, when transplanted cells begin to attack the body’s own cells.

The family was told that Florrie would need a lung transplant but then doctors found an atypical bacteria in her lungs which they said would take six months to clear.

In February her parents were devastated when she had to be ventilated after deteriorating.

But she recovered and is now having her final vaccinations before she goes on the lung transplant list.

Stacey said: “We don’t know how long she could be on there. It could be two weeks, it could be two years. She’s O+ which is the most common blood type but unfortunately that also means that there are lots of other deserving people with the same blood type on the transplant list.”

Florrie has grown such a following on social media that last month she was asked to appear on the famous This Morning sofa along with Stacey and Andrew.

"She just takes it all in her stride,” said Stacey.

“She’s so used to talking to adults in hospital that I don’t think if fazed her at all.”

Now the family is launched its own charity. The first patrons are World Champion snooker player Kyren Wilson and his family.

It’s aims will be to provide tuition, online learning and social groups for children with cancer, and to offer a range of support services for families across Northamptonshire. The charity will also utilise Andrew’s educational background by advocating for families and providing workshops and assemblies for schools to help them support children with cancer.

Stacey said: “Having cancer has been so isolating for Florrie. She misses out on so much. There are so many children affected by cancer and it often gets so boring for them because they can’t go to school. They get so lonely.

"We thought it would be nice to have something they can do at home.

"We also want to support families. Nobody really knows what it’s like unless they’ve been there so it’s about creating a community of people who understand.”

You can view more details about the charity walk here and follow the BeMoreFab Cancer Charity here.