THE 2019 North Wales Chronicle Child of the Year handed over a cheque of more than £1000 to Ysbyty Gwynedd’s Special Baby Care Unit this week.

Indi-Anna Kiely recently spent her tenth birthday completing a triathlon around the Bangor area to help raise funds for the unit.

This week, the Ysgol Bodfeurig pupil took her younger brothers Patrick and Jack and cousin Poppy to the Bangor-based hospital to hand the cheque over to nurses Suzanna Roberts and Darelle Smith.

India-Anna herself was a special baby, born at the Bangor unit six weeks early. She weighed only 2lbs 9oz.

“For my tenth birthday I decided I don’t want a party or any presents, instead I am going to do a big challenge,” she said.

“I wanted to raise lots of money for the special care baby unit in Ysbyty Gwynedd. When I was born I wasn’t ill, just very, very tiny.

“This is just my way of saying thank you to the nurses and to help the new babies now in the SCBU.”

During her fundraising triathlon completed on February 17, Indi-Anna ran, cycled and swam her way towards raising just over £1000.

To prepare for her challenge, she trained every day for a month and also gave up eating sweets and biscuits.

Commenting on Indi-Anna’s achievements, proud mum Susan said: “It is so nice that she has done something like this, and it was great to see her little brothers supporting her throughout it too.

“I am just overwhelmed and so happy that my children are so aware of the value of giving, and I am so proud of Indi-Anna, she is an amazing girl, who is so, so caring.”

Having been chosen as the North Wales Chronicle Child of the Year for 2019, Indi-Anna recently enjoyed a great day out.

She had the opportunity to pet snakes and meerkats at Pili Palas, jumped on the rides at Greenwood Forest Park and Caernarfon Fun Centre and received gifts from several generous local businesses.