CHARITY hero Charli Hopper is tomorrow taking on her biggest challenge yet.

The 11-year-old, who was born with three holes in her heart and, at 12 weeks old, needed life-saving surgery, is taking part in the Junior Great North Run.

The youngster is raising money to support the charity which helped her, and her family, through the open heart surgery.

She is running the 4km run at Newcastle on Saturday in support of the Children’s Heart Unit Foundation.

In July she won Durham Constabulary’s Young Heroes Award in recognition of her community-minded activities.

Charli has been involved in many different fundraising events and supported causes by collecting various important items to support people.

It all started when she gave away some clothes she had grown out of and saw the delight in the little girl’s face who said she had not had any new clothes for a long time.

She set up a Facebook page Give Something Back to allow people to give away items that they no longer wanted to others who maybe could not afford quite so much or just needed a little bit of help.

While attending Consett Junior School she has worked tirelessly to support various causes.

At Easter and Christmas Charli raises funds for Easter Eggs and selection boxes to give to those people who maybe do not have the funds or family to buy them.

She then uses local charities and support networks to identify families these can go to so that she can put the smile on people’s faces.

During the winter Charli worked with a charity called Hope North East to collect sleeping bags, coats, toiletries and many other things to support homeless people in the region.

Her appeal was so successful she needed a van to transport the items to the people who needed them.

Presenting her with her award, Inspector Keith Wardle, of Consett Police, said: “Well done and thank you for everything you have done and will carry on doing in the future.”

To support CHUF and Charli visit: chuf.org.uk/donate/