MORE than 150 people walked from Thornbury to Berkeley on Saturday in memory of a toddler who died from meningitis.

This year was the ninth in a row that the Sam Virgo Memorial Walk brought together people to raise vital funds for Meningitis Now to tackle the disease.

Sam Virgo, from Berkeley, died in 2008 at the age of two after contracting meningitis.

Since then the memorial walks have been the annual centre pieces for a huge array of fundraising activities organised in his memory which have, to date, provided more than £120,000 to the charity.

Donning their orange Meningitis Now t-shirts once more, the crowd of people, many of whom have been affected by the disease in some way, raised more than £1,000 on the day.

Sam’s mum, Sue Virgo, said that the walk had been ‘amazing’.

“The walk went really well,” she said. “There were a lot of people who had taken part before but there were also a few new people who had been affected by meningitis.”

Amongst the participants was charity founder Steve Dayman of Alveston whose own tireless work kick-started the ever-growing campaign to tackle the disease.

Speaking about Steve, Mrs Virgo added: “He’s been absolutely fantastic to us.

“At the time [of Sam’s death] Steve was in our house within three days and he would always ring.”

As well as the annual memorial walk, each year a rounders tournament is held whilst individual fundraising efforts have contributed thousands to the total.

Amongst the thousands of runners at this year’s London Marathon were three women from Berkeley, all supporting Meningitis Now.

Mrs Virgo promised that they would do ‘something special’ for next year’s memorial walk – the tenth.

To support Sam Virgo’s memorial fund and Meningitis Now visit sam.virgo.muchloved.com