Tony's story is a hard one to hear. Adopted at just 41 days old, Tony Hudgell had already received fractures, broken limbs, and blunt trauma to his face by his birth parents. After three months in the hospital, he wasn't expected to survive. In this state, he was adopted by kind parents from Kent, England who wanted to protect him from this kind of harm. Despite having five kids already, they vowed to help him crawl, walk, and talk, all of which doctors doubted he could do.
Tony's legs did not recover from being broken, and they were amputated in 2017. He was instead given prosethics. He was eager to help give back to the hospital, asking if there was a way he could raise money for the organization. His family also wanted him to work on his walking with the prosthetics, so they agreed to walk 300 meters a day, totaling 6 miles over a month.
We are so proud of the incredible courage and determination shown by Tony Hudgell, who is walking 10km to raise funds for @EvelinaLondon, of which The Duchess of Cambridge is Patron — #GoTonyGo!https://t.co/X5lU9FMBmz pic.twitter.com/Sc9Jl2BgqD
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) June 24, 2020
The walking was set up with a fundraiser that would donate the profits to Evelina London Hospital. Thanks to a local reporter and the kindness of a community, Tony raised over $1.6 million for the hospital. Even the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge supported the cause, as did many athletes with a similar condition. "Tony never sees anything as an obstacle anyway," said his mother, "If he sees something he wants to try, he'll tell us that he can still do it, he'll just do it 'Tony's way.'"
The family, though happy with their success, has also started advocating for Tony's Lw, which would demand harsher sentencing for child abuse that their son had endured.