Lorraine Kelly: Alfie McAnespie is an inspiration as he continues to raise money for our heroes

I’M lucky to meet lots of very famous and interesting people, but this week I came across a remarkable young boy who has a heart as big as a lion.

Alfie McAnespie is nine years old and his dad is serving in the armed forces.

When he was just 16 months old, he became the youngest unofficial fundraiser for the splendid charity Help For Heroes, of which I am a patron, by walking a mile with the newest of his nursery school classmates.

A year later, while living on a base in Germany he took part in a sponsored bike ride around an airfield and raised more than £2000 – which isn’t bad for a little boy who hadn’t yet celebrated his third birthday.

Alfie continued to fundraise and send parcels to troops in Afghanistan.

When his family moved back to the UK, he met up with injured serviceman John Prossner who was training for the swimming event in the Invictus Games.

Alfie saw that John’s wheelchair wasn’t really up to the job of getting him in and out of the water and asked him what was wrong and how could he help?

John told him that he really needed a new wheelchair but that it was too expensive.

Alfie then went home and decided to raise the £6500 needed to buy a wheelchair that would change John’s life.

He did a sponsored walk up Mount Snowdon and then he made the most remarkable gesture of all.

His ninth birthday was coming up, so he told everyone not to buy him a gift but to make a donation to the ‘wheelchair fund’ for John instead.

Thanks to Alfie, John has his wheelchair and it has made such a difference to him.

Right now, Alfie is planning a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro to raise more money for “Help For Heroes” to help wounded ex servicemen and women, and their families who have been injured in body and mind.

He’s an incredible young boy who just wants to come to the aid of others and make the world a kinder and better place.

Young people are often demonised and criticised for being selfish and lazy and always having their heads stuck in their iphones and iPads, but Alfie shows that there are also a lot of good kids in the world.

He is inspirational and he gives us all hope for the future.

It was lovely to meet him and chat to him about all of his fundraising ideas.

He just wants to help as many people as possible and to raise money for those in the armed forces who have sacrificed so much.

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