School friends raise money on anniversary of pupil's death (From Sutton Guardian)

School friends raise money on anniversary of pupil's death

9:50am Tuesday 7th August 2012 in News By Matt Watts

Friends of a gifted school pupil who died of meningitis the day after her 18th birthday raised thousands of pounds to mark the first anniversary of her death.

Georgia Tait died from meningococcal septicaemia (blood poisoning) in July last year.

She died surrounded by her family after first displaying symptoms of the disease on the previous day – her 18th birthday.

Georgia, house captain at Sutton High School, had recently returned from a holiday to Kos, Greece, with friends to celebrate completing her A-levels.

The year 13 pupil, from Carshalton, had collected school awards two days before and was looking forward to starting university.

To mark a year since her death, ten friends from Sutton High School spent 18 hours on the treadmills, bikes, concept rowers and crosstrainers in order to achieve an accumulated distance of 1175km, the distance between the gym and Tarascon in France.

The friends chose the distance to Tarascon because it was a place that meant a lot to Georgia, as her family have a property in the region where they would stay each year.

Her friend David Streather, 19, said: "We have tried to make positives from the tragedy and fundraising in Georgia's memory is something we all wanted to do as friends."

Georgia's family visited the friends during the gruelling endurance fundraiser to show support.

The friends have already raised £2,255, exceeding their £2000 target.

Make a donation at justgiving.com/tarascon