Inspirational 10-years-old walked the City Walls 52 times for charity

Lillie-Mae Frame, a 10 year old girl from the Fountain, has raised £2,500 by walking 52 miles of the city’s historic walls.
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The school-girl walked the walls every day for a month in early 2021, and again this year, to raise funds for two animal charities, Five Sisters Zoo and locally based, Friends of Rescue.

Lillie-Mae’s mum Natasha couldn’t be prouder of her little girl. She said, “When the first lockdown happened and the schools were closed, Lillie was at home like everyone else. Her father is from Scotland and she had heard about a zoo over there called the Five Sisters Zoo. She had heard that they were providing free, online, educational classes for children to teach them about the different animals and habitats and everything else. Lillie has always wanted to be a vet, so she was very interested in this. She watched all the videos and did all the workbooks to complete and she saw that they run completely on public donations, that they’re not entitled to any funding.

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“So, one day I came home from work and Lillie told me she was going to walk the walls for a month to raise money for the zoo. Before we knew it, we were walking the walls in rain, hail and snow. We were doing it every day and at one point, we were able to bring the sledge and slide down the walls. It was great fun!

“As well as walking, she got me to write to a few local businesses to donate raffle prizes and a lot of them got back to her and donated vouchers and items and things.

“She managed to raise over £1,200 that time round and because she did so well, she got invited over to Scotland for a private tour of the zoo where she was able to see behind the scenes. She saw the snow leopards and fed a bear by hand and she thought it was great.

“She was delighted with the feedback from and we thought it was all behind us until Friends of Rescue came along. They posted that they had over £2,000 worth of vet bills and Lillie said we’ll do the walls again but we were a wee bit hesitant. You have to track the whole way round to say that you’ve done it and our boy, Lillie’s brother, wasn’t too fussed on going for a walk every day. But she bribed everyone into doing it and before we knew it, we were back out again in the hail, rain and snow. It always seemed to be in winter when we were in a lockdown that we did it.

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“Lillie reached out again to the local businesses and she held a massive raffle with some great prizes. She raised £1,157 for them. She has done so well and she’s talking about the third one now but we’re trying to get her to hold off for another wee while.

Lillie-Mae with her little brother walking the snow-covered walls.Lillie-Mae with her little brother walking the snow-covered walls.
Lillie-Mae with her little brother walking the snow-covered walls.

“She’s always had a love for animals so this is right up her street to help them all. She’s definitely looking forward to the next one.

“We walked the walls every day for two months so it was 52 miles in full. We know every inch of the walls now! My dad owns the museum in the Fountain and it has things about the Siege of Derry and the Apprentice Boys and things so she was learning as she was walking too. It was just a great experience for her and her granda to bond too.

“We’re so proud of her for coming up with the idea and for doing it all too. I was a bit reluctant to advertise for sponsorships at the start because I thought she would do it for about a week and give up but she was getting us up and out every day to go walking and she loved every second of it.

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“Lillie would suffer with confidence and self esteem so, I told her we might do the next one for a mental health charity and talk about her story a bit.

Alderman Graham Warke, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council pictured during a reception for Lillie-Mae Frame in recognition of her fundraising efforts which saw her complete 52 miles round the city walls. Lillie-Mae raised £2500 in aid of two animal charities, Five Sisters Zoo and locally based, Friends of Rescue. Picture Martin McKeown. 09.03.22Alderman Graham Warke, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council pictured during a reception for Lillie-Mae Frame in recognition of her fundraising efforts which saw her complete 52 miles round the city walls. Lillie-Mae raised £2500 in aid of two animal charities, Five Sisters Zoo and locally based, Friends of Rescue. Picture Martin McKeown. 09.03.22
Alderman Graham Warke, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council pictured during a reception for Lillie-Mae Frame in recognition of her fundraising efforts which saw her complete 52 miles round the city walls. Lillie-Mae raised £2500 in aid of two animal charities, Five Sisters Zoo and locally based, Friends of Rescue. Picture Martin McKeown. 09.03.22

“I’d love to thank all the businesses and people who sponsored Lillie-Mae to help her out. She wouldn’t have gotten where she did if it wasn’t for them.”

Lillie-Mae is very proud of herself and that she has raised so much money for two great causes. She is looking forward to getting back out to do another fundraising challenge in the future.

She has also started her own business in the past few months making her own ‘snuffle mats’ for dogs. Lillie-Mae explained, “They’re wee mats and you put treats in them for the animals to sniff them out. I wanted to make treats too but my mammy said it’s best to just do the mats first.”

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Natasha continued, “We raised the money for Friends of Rescue, and when we were handing the money over outside Nine Hostages, a dog friendly cafe, we were asked if we would like to foster a dog. We had never even considered a dog before so we were a bit taken aback. But then we fostered a big dog called Obi and we realised that our family life really suited a dog so we adopted a springer spaniel from Pet FBI. He’s very fussy when it comes to treats and our aunties dog has allergies so we decided against putting the treats in.”

Lillie-Mae feeding a bear in Five Sisters Zoo in Scotland.Lillie-Mae feeding a bear in Five Sisters Zoo in Scotland.
Lillie-Mae feeding a bear in Five Sisters Zoo in Scotland.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Alderman Graham Warke welcomed Lillie-Mae and her family to the Mayor’s parlour earlier this week to present her with a special crystal for her achievement.

Mayor Warke said: “It was a pleasure to host Lillie-Mae and her family in the Guildhall this week to personally congratulate her on her amazing fund-raising efforts which will go such a long way in helping lots of animals both locally and on a wider scale as well.

“Lillie-Mae’s commitment and determination to complete her challenge is inspiring and I told her how proud she should be of what she has achieved.”

Lillie-Mae’s sniff mats can be ordered on @sniff_it_out_by_LilleMae.

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