Two best friends have raised more than £1,500 to provide support for NHS workers.

Samantha Jackson, from Riverview Park in Gravesend, and Ellen Shaw, from Darenth Village Park in Dartford, wanted to do as much as they could to try to make a difference to some of the people who are saving lives at Darent Valley Hospital.

The 13-year-olds, who are Year 8 pupils at Saint George's Church of England School in Gravesend, saw an Instagram post explaining that the hospital was looking to set up a wellbeing space for staff.

The pair decided to raise money towards it.

Ellen said: "Our aim for this fundraiser is to hopefully bring a little bit of light in the world of darkness and uncertainty currently.

"We wanted to raise money to provide support for NHS workers at Darent Valley Hospital.

"After all of this is over, most of the staff are going to be affected by what they’ve seen and the state of some of their patients.

"Obviously, they will never fully forget that image, but we would like to at least try to ease their minds a little."

To raise money, the best friends completed daily challenges on their Instagram page, @nhs_fundraiser_smile13.

Samantha and Ellen took part in a circuit challenge, a sponsored bake, a random act of kindness, they also learned something new, run and cycled 5k and even hosted a live sign language challenge.

Samantha said: "Everything we took part in was really fun, but the 5K was definitely the hardest.

"Our favourite fundraising activity was the baking. It was really nice to make something and then distribute it to the NHS staff."

Some of the challenges were held over a live stream while some were recorded as photos and videos.

Ellen's mum, Sam, said: "My sister, Ellen's aunt, works at a hospital and Samantha's mum is a maternity care assistant so when the girls made the cakes our family members were able to pick them up and take them into work.

"We are so proud, they've done such a good job.

"Friends, family and even their school has backed them. It's wonderful.

"Samantha and Ellen even received £500 from one of their neighbours. When he was younger he had done some fundraising of his own and wanted to help the girls out."

The best friends smashed their £1,500 in little under a month. If you would like to find out more visit their Go Fund Me page here, or their Instagram here.

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