Milton Keynes charity delivers its 5000th pair of custom-painted Supershoes

Milton Keynes-based national children’s charity has delivered its 5000th pair of Supershoes.

The custom-painted shoes were made for a very special eight-year-old, Super Henry., who is battling cancer.

Supershoes is a volunteer-led charity with more than 300 artists who create mini-masterpieces on shows in their own spare time to cheer up children undergoing treatment for cancer.

Henry’s joy at seeing his favourite characters from Frozen and Scooby Doo, painted on his Supershoes by Super Artist Krystle, were captured by local photographers Niki and Mark at Ingenious Photo Genies.

The CEO of Supershoes, Sarah White, delivered the very special pair personally.

The charity dispatches shoes to children all over the UK and each pair is as unique as the child or young person that wears them.

Sarah said: “Back in 2013, my husband, Ken and I set ourselves a target: to deliver 52 pairs of Supershoes a year, one pair each week, to children undergoing treatment for cancer.

"We wanted to bring a smile to the face of poorly children in the shape of a unique gift: a pair of hand-painted trainers, featuring all the things that child loves: animals, cars, colours, tv characters and so on.

"We could never have imagined that eight years on, we’d be delivering our 5000th pair. It’s just awesome.”

But Sarah is in no doubt about what those 5000 pairs mean. “This number also stands for the other 4,999 children and young people going through some gruelling, tough times in their treatment for cancer, including the angels who, heartbreakingly, didn’t make it," she said.

"It costs between £70 and £100 to create a pair of Supershoes. Without the continuing support of our generous sponsors, we would never have been able to get this far, but we get 25+ requests each week, so our work is by no means over. We’ll carry on bringing smiles as long as there are youngsters still fighting cancer.”