Jamie Peacock MBE, Great Britain Rugby League legend, has announced he is running a unique 100-mile ultramarathon around London to fundraise for sports and mentoring charity Greenhouse Sports on April 16th.

After a very successful 52-mile ultramarathon fundraiser in May 2021 raising over £60,000 for Greenhouse Sports with sports agency founder Simon Dent, this year the pair have challenged themselves to more than double the distance and feat, again raising money and awareness for Greenhouse Sports in their 20th anniversary year.

Jamie and Simon will be joined by keen runners Chris Williams and Sam Rents for the full 100-mile route, which will begin and end at the Greenhouse Centre, checking in at a number of the 39 schools in London that Greenhouse Coaches support.

All four runners have chosen to fundraise for Greenhouse Sports because of their own passion for sports and the positive impact they know sport has on children's overall wellbeing including their mental health and academic achievements.

The Greenhouse Centre is a unique community sports centre situated in a 17th century former church and listed building in Marylebone which has served as the charity's HQ since April 2018, after extensive refurbishment and conversion to a safe space offering free sports coaching and community activities to underprivileged children of all ages and backgrounds 6 days a week. During the first lockdown, the Centre operated as a foodbank to help feed families.

With the sad development that the charity had to temporarily close their HQ in December 2021 due to safety issues in the Centres roof, Jamie pledged to 'run for the roof' in 2022. The impressive challenge is to raise funds but also to help raise awareness of the charity, which is this year celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Greenhouse Sports use a unique combination of mentoring and sport to help young people living in poverty reach their full potential, both at school and then into employment. Currently there are 4 million children in the UK living in poverty, and these childrens circumstances are impacted more by Covid-19, with worse mental health outcomes, academic outcomes and employment prospects.

Greenhouse Sports, supported by players of Peoples Postcode Lottery, partners with schools to embed full-time coaches who become trusted mentors and inspire the children to aim higher. School children supported by a Greenhouse Sports Coach are on average likely to attend more than 5 days of school a year than those not on Greenhouse programmes.

The charity recently announced plans to expand across the country to help more underprivileged children in the UK, launching in a school in Portsmouth in this school year.

The charity is going above and beyond to ensure the young people supported by the Centre continue to receive the mentoring and coaching programmes crucial to levelling up their life chances and is operating in a temporary alternative venues while the Centre remains closed.