Hughie & Freddie Launch New Book: Friends Are Amazing

FUNDRAISERS Hughie Higginson and Freddie Xavi have launched a new book, to teach children about friendship and raise even more money for our Charity.

"Friends Are Amazing" is an inspiring picture book celebrating the importance of friendship and togetherness, written by the best friends, who are also Royal Manchester Children's Hospital Charity fundraisers and Pride of Britain winners.

Hughie and Freddie's new book

Together, the boys have raised more than £250,000 for our Charity since 2020, when Hughie was diagnosed with a type of leukaemia known as ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukaemia). Now their fundraising efforts will be helped along even more with sales of the book, as 25p from each copy sold will be donated to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital Charity.

The book is being sold by publishing house Scholastic and has been illustrated by Erica Salcedo, a freelance illustrator based in Spain. One of the illustrations is a special tribute to Hughie's ward friend Liam, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Hughie was glad he was able to tell Liam he would be in the book before he died.

Hughie and Freddie said: "We know how important it is to have a friend who is there for you when things are tough and we hope our book will inspire children to be there for their friends too."

Hughie and Freddie outside Royal Manchester Children's Hospital

Georgia Sleigh, Relationship Officer at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital Charity, said: "Hughie and Freddie are incredibly passionate about helping other children and doing all they can for our young patients. The funds they have raised have helped us make improvements to the children's hospital which not only create a fun environment for the patients and their families, but also saves lives."

Hughie and Freddie's fundraising started in late 2020, when Hughie was in hospital. Freddie wanted to do something to support his friend, so decided to run 2km every day for 50 days in a row, finishing on Christmas Day morning 2020. Now Hughie is a bit further along in his treatment and is now an outpatient, the boys have decided to do a new fundraising challenge they can both join in together. They are running 1km around every Premier League and English Football League club ground. As this adds up to 92km, they hope to find additional iconic venues to make the total up to 100km.

Hughie and Freddie crossing the finish line

This time, the funds collected at each run will be donated to the ground's nearest paediatric oncology unit. So the clubs where fans will be encouraged to donate to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital will be: Accrington Stanley, Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, Burnley, Carlisle, Crewe Alexandra, Fleetwood, Manchester City, Manchester United, Morecambe, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Salford and Stoke.

You can click here to visit Amazon to buy a copy of the book.

You can also read more about the 100km football ground challenge here.