13-Year-Old Becomes the Youngest to be Awarded With the British Empire Medal

Jonjo Heuerman aged 13 is the youngest person to receive the medal in this year's list, Cancer Research UK and he is one of the youngest ever to be given the accolade.He has started fundraising at the age of five and has collected £235,000 for the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK.

Jonjo was inspired to raise funds after his grandmother Lyn died from bowel cancer in February 2009, aged 60. He cycled thousands of miles with his parents across Britain over the years attracting football players in the Premier League.

Jonjo said, "I was really surprised and very proud to hear I was on the New Year's Honors List. I didn't even know what a British Empire Medal was. I never realized my fundraising would go this far."

His mother Donna said,"We're all incredibly proud of him but his nan, who was the inspiration for all this, would have been so thrilled for him. She was a bit of a matriarch, like Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders – fiercely proud of her family. She would have been doing cartwheels."

Bobby Moore's widow Stephanie praised the fundraising efforts of Jonjo, who will receive his inscribed British Empire Medal from the Lord Lieutenant of Kent in 2016.

She said, "Not only has he raised a phenomenal amount of money and helped raise awareness of bowel cancer, but he has taken on a huge physical challenge for someone so young."

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Source-Medindia