Schoolmate of Jordan Banks runs nine miles from Fleetwood to Blackpool to raise money for memorial

Finley Hughes, of Abbotsford Road, Marton, ran nine miles - one mile for each year of Jordan Banks life - from Roundway to Starr Gate on Saturday morning.

He wanted to raise £500 for a school bench in memory of Jordan, who died on May 11 after being struck by lightning while taking part in a football coaching session on Common Edge playing fields.

His mum Alex Morgan, 27, said: "We had seen people talking about raising money for a memorial at the school to give the children somewhere to go. We wanted to give the children somewhere they could go at school to remember Jordan and pay their respects

"Finley absolutely loves running. He will spend his weekends happily going for four or five mile runs. We came up with nine miles for each year of Jordan's life, and he has been practicing, going out every weekend adding a mile at a time.

"We set off from Fleetwood and went down the Prom. He did amazingly, he didn't moan at all. At the eight mile point we had arranged for family and freidns to cheer him on through the last mile, which he loved, and a few of them joined in.

"I'm incredibly proud of him. I could see by his face when he completed it that he was thrilled to bits."

Finley smashed his original fund-raising goal, bringing in £750 so far. This, combined with the fund-raising efforts of other Stanley Primary School pupils, teachers and parents, means that a memorial for Jordan may be installed at the school in the near future - though a spokesman said this would only happen following a meeting with Jordan's family, and so it was not know yet what the memorial would be.

Alex said: "Jordan's death has been devastating. It was really hard the first couple of weeks to just walk past the school because everyone was putting flowers down. Finley himself was upset because Jordan was in the same year group, and it impacted a lot of his friends who went to Clifton football club and were really upset about it.

"The school has done a number of fund-raising events themselves, raised money for Brian House, and there has been a couple of trips organised for Year 4.

"With the money left over people are donating to other things. Some people have donated to the family. We're going to donate to installing defibrillators in Marton."