A young girl from Oldham has successfully completed a five-mile scooter ride this week to raise money for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Freya McKechnie wanted to do something to thank “the place that took Millie’s tubes away”.
After her “special new friend” Millie was transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool shortly after being born to receive life-saving treatment, the five-year-old from Delph in Saddleworth decided she wanted to say thank you in her own special way.
So she set out on a mission to ride her scooter for five miles – one mile for every year of her age.
With a little help from her mum Jenny – who is the best friend of Millie’s mum – Freya first put out an appeal for donations to her charity scooter ride on social media, with a beautifully hand-written poster reading: “I am raising money for Alder Hey who looked after my friend Millie. I’m going to ride my scooter for five miles on 22nd December.
“Miracle baby” Millie – who was born at North Manchester Hospital – is now nine weeks old and is spending Christmas at home with her family in Middleton.
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Her mother Jenni Burrows-Maynard relived the unfolding drama after her baby’s birth, explaining: “Millie was struggling to breathe. I then haemorrhaged and lost over a litre of blood [so] she was taken to ICU and was intubated, but despite [staff] doing all they could, they didn’t have the facilities to help Millie and she had had limited oxygen for a prolonged period, which could impact on her neurological functionality.
“Her only option was ECMO – extracorpóreal membrane oxygenation – also known as extracorporeal life support (ECLS).
“It is an extracorporeal technique of providing prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to persons whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange or perfusion to sustain life.
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“Eight hours hours after Millie was born she was transported to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool and was on ECMO for six days. Once she was weaned off ECMO and stable she was then transferred Royal Oldham Hospital where she spent three weeks in their neonatal intensive care unit and then their nursery.
“She was discharged initially with a feeding tube, but now she is a healthy and chatty baby.”
Freya’s mum Jenny McKechnie added: “Freya’s not daft, she knew something was wrong and she’s followed all my texts and calls with Millie’s mum.
“When she found out people had been raising money on Millie behalf, she wanted to do the same.”
After being inspired to help, Freya admitted she’d “quite like to raise one hundred million pennies” for hospital staff, but her mum said they would be “eternally grateful” to anyone who is able to donate “a couple of quid”.
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Jenny set up a PayPal account to securely accept donations, as well as taking personal contributions from people they knew.
Her friends and family also chipped in by holding raffles and fundraisers.
And so this past Tuesday, Freya set off on her scooter from her home in Delph to Uppermill, riding past her school and then back home again – a distance of around five miles – and has managed to raise a whopping £800 and counting for the worthy cause.
Millie’s mother said: “Freya is an amazing little girl and a wonderful friend to Millie already – what she is doing is wonderful.”
This is just brilliant.
If you would like to donate to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital via Freya’s fundraiser, you can do so here.
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Both Manchester United and Manchester City named as teams with the least amount of local fans
Emily Sergeant
Both Manchester United and Manchester City have been identified as being teams with the least amount of local fans, according to a new survey.
We all know that supporting a local team can be seen as a mark of credibility among a certain kind of football fan, while on the flip side of that, not following a local team is often associated with being a ‘glory hunter’. But which Premier League clubs have the highest – and lowest – proportion of supporters living close to home?
Well, YouGov decided to use its profiles data to analyse the fanbases of all 20 Premier League clubs for the 2026-27 season to get the answer to this once and for all.
And it’s fair to say that it’s not looking the best for the Manchester teams.
The study found that, overall, Brighton & Hove Albion is the Premier League’s most local team – with 56% of fans based in the South East.
Sunderland (50%) and Nottingham Forest (49%) supporters are the next-most likely to live in the same region as their teams, followed by Aston Villa, Brentford, Ipswich, Leeds, Fulham, Hull, and Crystal Palace fans rounding out the top 10.
At the other end of the table, Manchester United has the second-lowest proportion of local supporters, with only a quarter based in the North West (23%), with one in six (17%) actually living in London instead.
And then as for Manchester City – who are widely considered to be the most successful team of the modern era – it has ranked fourth-bottom for local fans, as a quarter of the club’s supporters are based in the North West, with a fifth based in London (19%).
But although both United and City have found themselves towards the bottom end of the ranking, they are not the worst offenders.
That title, unfortunately, does belong to another North West team though – Liverpool.
Liverpool is the club with the lowest proportion of ‘local’ supporters, as just a fifth are based in the North West (21%) with the next highest concentration of fans can being found in London.
Featured Image – Johnny Gios (via Unsplash)
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Data reveals Manchester hotel prices have ALREADY surged by 462% on rumoured Oasis tour dates
Emily Sergeant
Manchester hotel prices have apparently already surged by 462% on rumoured Oasis tour dates, some new data has revealed.
Of course, absolutely nothing is set in stone yet and we are still yet to receive any form of announcement.
But with rumours having been swirling for months now that Oasis will be touring again in 2027, and several videos shared on the band’s social media platforms this week also hinting at that, it’s been revealed that searches for ‘when are Oasis tickets going on sale?’ have soared by 5,000% in the last seven days alone.
After recent data has pointed towards soaring searches for tickets, the experts at SeatPick decided to analyse the average cost of accommodation in Manchester on the suspected concert nights in June 2027 to uncover if prices have surged along with the searches.
Data reveals that Manchester hotel prices have already surged by 462% on rumoured Oasis tour dates / Credit: The Manc Group | Simon Emmett (Press Picture)
And lo and behold, it appears that they have.
The ticketing platform has revealed that hotel prices have surged by up to 462% during Oasis’ rumoured concert nights in Manchester.
The rumoured weekend date of 19 and 20 June has experienced the most noticeable price surge – with a two-star hotel costing an average of £216 for just one overnight stay.
The data also reveals that the rumoured finale on the 27 June has just a £95 difference between two-star hotels (£200) and five-star hotels (£295).
“Our analysis uncovered an enormous markup for local accommodation on nights that Oasis is rumoured to perform in Manchester,” explained Gilad Zilberman, who is the CEO at ticket platform SeatPick.
“Being aware of these accommodation costs and additional expenses can help fans plan and avoid being caught off guard by inflated prices on concert nights.
“To find the best deals on hotels, concertgoers should scan budget chains in the city or look slightly outside of the centre in hotspots served by local bus routes or regional trains, such as Salford and Trafford.
Emily Sergeant -
23rd December 2020 
