Determined Danni’s 12-month charity challenge
Being a working mother-of-three is clearly not challenging enough for crematorium assistant Danni Sear, who is turning 2025 into a 12-month charity crusade.
The 29-year-old, who is based at Charing Crematorium in Kent, is taking on 12 charity walks/runs/events throughout 2025 to raise valuable funds for 12 different worthy causes.
Determined Danni got off to a flying start, smashing her intention of covering 28 miles in February by walking more than 58 miles.
That was her first fund-raiser – January was a ‘planning month’ so she is taking on two challenges in October in order to complete 12 throughout the year.
It all began on a personal note, as Danni explains: “After having three children, my body had changed in ways that made me feel less confident. Wanting to feel better about myself, I decided to make a positive change.
“I thought, what better way to do that than to regularly exercise by completing charity walking and running events. This inspired me to choose 12 charities to raise money for, some of which are very close to me.
“Each event I am doing is different; some are organised events taking place on certain dates in certain places and others are targets for self-run walks across the month.
“I have tallied up the total number of miles I will be covering through the year and it is just over 178, but I am hoping to smash this target out of the park.”
Danni’s dozen fundraisers include a park mud run, the Thames Bridges Ultra Challenger Hike, a Moonlit Memories Walk, a 15-mile Poppy Hike and a Boxing Day Dip in the sea at Folkestone.
The organisations she is supporting are: Mental Health UK, Combat Stress, Alzheimer’s Society, Royal British Legion, Pilgrims Hospices in East Kent, Cancer Research UK, The Polycystic Ovaries Self-Help Group, Parkinson’s UK, Heart of Kent Hospice, The Salvation Army, Lions Club International and Tommys, a pregnancy/baby loss charity.
She said: “A couple of my colleagues from Charing Crematorium will be joining me on the muddy park run in July, and my parents will be joining me for the Parkinson’s UK Ultra Challenge in September.”
Charing Crematorium itself will be the venue for one of the fund-raisers, hosting a week of Tea, Cakes and Talks in October, during Pregnancy and Baby Loss Awareness Week.
Charing Crematorium is part of Westerleigh Group, one of the UK’s largest independent owners and operators of crematoria and cemeteries, with 41 sites in England, Scotland, and Wales, all set within beautifully landscaped gardens of remembrance which provide peaceful places for people to visit and reflect.
Danni added: “Westerleigh Group has always been very big on supporting charities and working together, we can raise even more for my chosen causes.
“The company has given me branded shirts and is also donating £100 to each of the 12 charities I am supporting, for which I am very grateful.”
“Knowing that I work for such a giving company, I knew that I wanted to do something to make a difference, too.
“The hardest part of all this for me will be the time, as a mum to three gorgeous boys, a wife and being in full-time work. However, Westerleigh have been very good with allowing me time within work to help rack up the miles for my tally.”
Charing Crematorium Manager Matthew Lambkin said: “We’re all full of admiration for Danni and what she is setting out to do this year – it’s exhausting even thinking about it, let alone doing it.
“But she is very determined, and we are all right behind her, giving her our full support knowing that she will certainly achieve her wish of making a positive difference. I have a feeling she is going to absolutely smash her fund-raising target, too.”
Regular updates on Danni’s progress are being posted on the crematorium’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/CharingCrematorium where you can also find links for making donations if you want to support any of the charities she is raising money for.
For more information about Charing Crematorium, and the exceptional care and support it provides to its local communities, visit www.charing-crematorium.co.uk
