On October 6th 2013, Beggars Group (4AD, Matador, Rough Trade & XL) will run the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon. 

Sixteen plucky Beggars half-marathoners will join around 12,500 other runners from around the world as they attempt to get around the 13.1 mile route that takes in four Royal Parks (Hyde Park, Green Park, Kensington Gardens and St. James' Park) in the fair city of London.

The runners who have accepted the challenge are - 

Isobel Palos, Paul Riddlesworth, Ed Horrox, Rich Walker, Kristian Downs, Jo Morris, Joshua Turner, Stephen Pietrzykowski, Emma Lomas, Kathryn Braddick, Jean-Philippe Aline, Sylvain Morlaix, Imran Ahmed, Jack Savidge, Ed Gibson and Rob Cannell. 

So what's the reason for this display of physical prowess? Simple really, we want to a raise a whole heap of money for the charity Missing People.

Missing People is a lifeline when someone disappears, offering help to the 250,000 people who go missing each year in the UK - over half of whom are children. Missing People is the only UK charity that supports the families and friends left behind. We want to help Missing People continue the good work they have been doing for the past twenty years. 

For more information about what this great charity does, head to their website - www.missingpeople.org.uk

So this is where you can get involved! Our goal is to raise £30,000, enough for Missing People to cover the cost of a Helpline Superviser for one year. This vital role will oversee the running of our 24-hour helpline services and take responsibility for the safeguarding of all service users. We would really appreciate your support, so please give generously. 

Here's an example of what your donations will help to pay for at Missing People:

£10 - pays to follow up a sighting of a lost child

£25 - means we can issue 10 urgent poster campaigns to find a child

£30 - pays for hour of specialised telephone counselling for a parent of a missing child 

£50 - keeps the search alive for a missing person for over two months

£100 - pays for an extra member of staff to man a phone overnight from midnight - 6am 

£120 - will help us support the family of a missing person for an entire year

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On September 21st, Beggars Group's CEO Paul Redding will be taking part in the Little Red Lighthouse Swim. Held annually in New York City, Paul will be swimming a mammoth 10.2km of the Hudson River, also in aid of Missing People. This incredible challenge is certainly not for the faint-hearted! 

For more information about Little Red Lighthouse Swim click here.