SCALEXTRIC cars were raced around a track non-stop for 24-hours as part of an eight-year-old boy’s mission to raise money for charity.

Luke Rivers has pledged to raise £5,000 during the next five years for Cancer Research UK after his great-grandmother died of pancreatic cancer three years ago.

The Kingsclere Primary School pupil is already nearly halfway towards hitting his target after making an impressive £2,100 through the 24-hour Scalextric endurance event.

Luke, from Kingsclere, was sponsored to stay up all night in the Methodist Church, in Kingsclere, where he charged people £2.50 to race one of six cars around a track for half-an-hour.

Luke said: “We estimated 350 people turned up over the 24 hours. I was okay until about mid-afternoon last Saturday and then I started going off into a wonderland every now and then. But I stayed awake for the whole thing and didn’t sleep for 36 hours. We raised twice the amount I was hoping to raise.”

Scalextric donated four endurance cars for the event, along with prizes for a raffle.

Emma Rivers, Luke’s mother, said: “When my gran died of cancer, for Luke, it was the first family member who had died so he was quite upset.

“Hundreds of people turned up to support him at the Scalextric event, and it was really nice because lots of different people from the village got involved. I’m really proud of Luke – it was a fantastic event.”