Three teenagers are challenging themselves to stay off their smart phones, tablets, TVs and gadgets for a day to raise money for St Elizabeth Hospice.
Lucie Jenkins, 15, whose mother Briony passed away at the hospice last year, wanted to say thank you for the care she received so decided to set herself a difficult challenge.
Along with friends Lucy Gardner and Emma Colston, who all go to Royal Hospital School in Ipswich, Lucie has locked away all her tech – meaning no Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter for 24 hours.
Lucie said it was going to be a very frustrating day. “We put all our phones and iPads in a box,” said Lucie.
“It is going to be really difficult because our lives revolve around social media.
“24 hours seems a very long time right now. I’ll miss them all, my iphone, my ipad, my Kindle – we can’t listen to music either.
“The hospice made my mum very happy, I wanted to say thank you and raise some money for them.”
To keep themselves entertained, the trio have come up with a host of games to play that don’t require batteries or an electrical plug.
She said: “We are going to play the chubby bunny challenge where we put as many marshmallows in our mouths as we can and try to say ‘chubby bunnies’.
“We are also playing the tin can challenge where we get tins and rip the labels off and number them and have to eat what is inside. We will have three nice ones and six horrible ones.
“The nice ones have fruit in them, pears and pineapples and the horrible ones have Spam, mackerel, cold baked beans and sardines.”
So far the trio have raised almost £920 of their £1,500 target.
Felicity Rook, head of fundraising at the hospice, said: “It’s so lovely to see Lucie with her friends at the hospice as she begins her fundraising.
“She’s really gained in confidence since we first spoke about the challenge and I know it’s going to be difficult for them all to give up their gadgets.
“It would be lovely for them to be able to go online after their challenge is over to see how much they’ve raised. This money will then be used to help other families like hers while they are with us.”
To donate visit http://giving.stelizabethhospice.org.uk/lucieemmalucytechfree24
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