As some of you may know, I love running. And I love food and I love carrying my oversized water bottle around. And I love knowing that I had the privilege of growing up never having had any serious health issues except for a cold here and there and at most 1.5 asthma attacks.
Having seen bad news and constant negativity dominate social media and the news, I wanted to start actively appreciating the little things that we might all take for granted such as food, clean water, access to water, access to warm water and the opportunity to grow up more often. However, there is still a significant amount of people right now without food, clean water and/or the opportunity to grow up and that the bad news we view as something that is “other” to us is very much someone else’s reality right this second.
So, this is why for the next few long distance races, I’ll be fundraising for organizations that support these basic privileges that we should all have a chance to experience.
I’ll be running The Meadows Marathon on March 1st for The Trussell Trust, one of the three Edinburgh Students’ Charities Appeal charity, that works to support food banks providing emergency food provisions across the United Kingdom.
From April 4th to April 5th, I’ll be running the Ultra Tour of Arran (96km) for Children with Cancer UK, a charity dedicated to raising money and providing care for children and their families, as well as funding research projects to help understand what causes children to get cancer.
And finally, on May 24th, I’ll be running the Edinburgh Marathon for WaterAid, an international non-governmental organization that works in partnership with local organizations around the world to establish sustainable water supplies, toilets and hygiene solutions.