Sun staff raise £5,000 with 18-mile walk in memory of health features editor who died one year ago aged 31

Sun staff have raised £5,000 for charity with an 18-mile walk across London in memory of the title’s health features editor, Christina Earle, who died last year aged 31.

More than 20 of Earle’s Sun colleagues, family and friends walked for six hours from Old Deer Park in Richmond, near where she used to live, to the Sun’s London Bridge headquarters.

Earle, who joined the Sun as a freelance in 2011 before becoming health features editor in 2017, died suddenly on 2 March last year.

A blood clot was discovered when she attended a routine physio appointment for an injured knee and she died that afternoon.

Sun health features editor Christina Earle. Picture: The Sun/News UK

Just six months earlier Earle had launched the Sun’s inaugural Who Cares Wins awards for NHS staff.

Before her death, she was fundraising for Brain Tumour Research in memory of her friend and Sun colleague Nicki Waterman, a fitness expert who died of cancer in 2016.

She helped raise more than £50,000 for the charity by taking part in a 187-mile team cycle across southern India.

Earle’s Sun colleagues therefore decided to raise money for the same charity she had so passionately supported on her friend’s behalf in marking the first anniversary of her death.

Sun fitness editor Jenny Francis, who organised Christina’s Walk, said: “Christina was a hugely caring individual and, alongside her work raising awareness of numerous charities, she also fundraised for Brain Tumour Research following Nicki’s death from the disease.

“We wanted to celebrate Christina’s wonderful life whilst also raising money for a cause which she was passionate about.

“It was so cruel that Christina should die aged just 31, especially when she had dedicated much of her life to helping others and championing health causes.

“Christina’s Walk was a bittersweet event: we all miss her terribly but we’re pleased that we’ve continued her legacy and raised more than £5,000 for Brain Tumour Research.”

Earle was survived by her husband Oliver Newbury (pictured top, second right) who said the walk was “a wonderful way to remember her”.

The whole group for Christina’s Walk on 1 March, with Vassos Alexander of the Chris Evans Breakfast Show (kneeling, centre). Picture: The Sun/Brain Tumour Research

Main picture: The Sun/Brain Tumour Research UK

Topics in this article : The Sun