A PUB in Wallasey is hosting an event in support of Tim Edwards and John May who are walking to John O’Groats as part of a campaign to end gun and knife crime.

Tim Edwards lost his 26-year-old daughter, Elle Edwards, after she was shot outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey on Christmas Eve.

Tim has joined comedian and actor John May on a walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise awareness of the Weapons Down Gloves Up scheme – a boxing initiative aimed at taking young people off the streets and into employment.

On Friday, March 10 Tim and John were joined by hundreds of people, including boxer Tony Bellew and boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, in a walk from Otterspool to Pier Head in Liverpool to support the campaign.

Tim, who had been walking with John for 12 days prior to the walk in Liverpool, also revealed that he would be continuing the walk with John all the way up to John O’Groats to continue to raise awareness of the campaign.

The fundraising event

The Ridge Hotel and Diner, formerly known as The Sandridge, is hosting a charity race afternoon in support of Tim, John and the Weapons Down Gloves Up campaign.

Speaking to the Globe about the event, one of the organisers, Rachel Cummings, said: "We do a range of events for charities and it was another charity, Charlotte's Brightside in New Brighton that brought it up to us.

"They are very close with the Edward's family and they simply asked our licensee to make a donation to the campaign. A split second later we thought we'll just do a massive fundraising event instead.

"There was such a sadness in the air over Christmas because it happened in one of our local pubs so it feels nice to run the event in a local pub and get the community involved."

The team at Charlotte's Brightside contacted Tim to tell him about the event and Rachel said he was "over the moon". 

Licensee of the pub, Natalie Burridge, Rachel, and Emma Walker from Charlotte's Brightside are all involved with the organisation of the charity event.

Rachel added: "We thought we would hold a race day. We want to get the whole community involved if we can.

"We wanted to do something fun and a little bit different."

The event will be Saturday, April 1 with the virtual race at 4pm.

Anyone can attend and there will be a raffle held, along with a performance from Wirral band, Tequila from 9pm.

Rachel said: "We want it to be a massive celebration, even though the underlying story behind it is absolutely devastating.

"We want people to come along and have a good time and we're looking forward to raising money for a local charity."

For more information, visit here.​

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