At The Running Charity we believe that sport and fitness should be a fundamental part of everyone’s day; we know first hand the power it has to dramatically improve both your physical and mental wellbeing. Running in particular has a hidden beauty that is overlooked, it enables anyone at any ability to push through their limitations from day one to reaching a PB at a 10K or Marathon. Only you can put in the time and energy, and the best thing is, only you will benefit and reap 100% of the rewards.
Let’s not forget the camaraderie that comes with running. If you are in a running club, you know how important it is to have a group of people around you supporting you and pushing further. Sometimes they don’t have to say anything, but knowing you have a run with that group once a week gets you in the gear and out in the cold streets of England. Members in a running club become much more then just running buddies, they become friends. In our case, our members support each other every step of their self-transformation and become a family in the process.
Since 2012, we have focused on helping our members and ensuring our service – which was part-designed by our first 12 members – truly works and tackles their needs. We are now fortunate enough to combine these efforts with growing this family, to you and the rest of the running world. We want everyone to know running is a brilliant solution to a worldwide prevalent issue, but also a solution to everyone finding happiness and unity.
We wish to inspire more people actively running and embracing a healthy lifestyle, most importantly, to support others feel the same benefits – no matter their gender, sexuality, background or circumstances.
We’re honoured to have the official support of the London Marathon. With them we were able to start our expansion across London helping twice as many young people. The London Marathon pride themselves in not only one of the UK’s most watched sporting event every year, but the largest annual fundraising event in the world. Last year they raised a staggering £53.2 million for charities and good causes; and also saw the raw potential in us as a small group of runners volunteering every spare minute to this charity.
Nick Bitel, CEO of the London Marathon, said “The London Marathon is delighted to be able to support this innovative new charity as part of our corporate social responsibilities. It’s long been recognised that sport can be an important tool for tackling social exclusion but this is the first time we have seen running used explicitly for this purpose.
“The Running Charity has shown within its first year that running can be used successfully to improve the employment, education, health and social life chance of young people. As an organisation which promotes the joys and benefits of running, we are pleased to be able to help it expand its activities, to bring support to more homeless young people over the next two years.”
How you can get involved
The organisation is formed of passionate runners, individuals in the homeless sector, business men and women that want to give back and graduate members of our programme. We really want your input – whether that’s donating, running for us, volunteering at events, becoming an instructor or offering your skills to develop the charity.
You can get involved easily by Contacting us, Subscribing to our newsletter and by donating to us.
Happy Running.
Featured Photo | Tom Miles