Northampton teen plans to Irish dance around the Racecourse to raise money for NGH

A teenager has set herself a difficult challenge to Irish dance a long distance to raise money for Northampton General Hospital.

Baileigh Murray, who competes in Irish dance competitions all over the country, is going to use her once-a-day exercise on Sunday (April 26) to complete a lap of the Racecourse.

The 14-year-old, who has been inspired by her dance teacher who is also a nurse, will Irish dance her way around half of the 3km course and will then run the rest, making sure she abides by social distancing rules.

Baileigh’s mum, Sarah, said: “Her Irish dance teacher is a nurse at Northampton General working on one of the Covid-19 wards.

“She has been telling her bits and saying how hard it is and Baileigh wanted to help her somehow.

“Baileigh also has another cousin who works for the NHS, so she decided she wanted to do half as an Irish dance to honour her teacher and then half as a run for all the other nurses and doctors.”

When Baileigh competes her dances usually last around three minutes, but Sarah thinks the dancing part of her daughter’s challenge will take a long time.

She added: “In some dances Baileigh moves more so she’s picked them to get round the racecourse.

“But I think it will still take her an hour or two to do the dancing part. There’s some really difficult steps. The running part will be OK though.

“She knows it is going to be hard, but raising money has to be something hard not easy.”

Baileigh, who attends Kingsthorpe College, has already managed to smash her original target of £100 as her fundraising page currently sits at £275.

The teenager is hoping this money will go towards helping the local NHS workers who are fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Sarah added: “Baileigh really wants to raise as much as possible.

“They are doing such a good job and all of us in this town have been helped by them at some point.”

When Baileigh completes her challenge on Sunday, she will wear a homemade t-shirt that is dedicated to the NHS and decorated with a rainbow.

Donations can be made on her GoFundMe page.

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