In early July the annual Oxford University Hockey Club tour was meant to take place. This year’s destination for our annual escapade was meant to be to Krakow, Poland, which has been voted one of Europe’s most popular cities to visit! This highly anticipated tour was long awaited for many of us as a reward for completing our exams after a busy term of work. It also provides an opportunity for those of us who would have been completing finals and have spent many hours together both on and off the hockey pitch, the chance for one last hoorah with friends before they move on to the next stages of their career.

However, due to the current Government restrictions on essential travel and the difficultly of international travel surrounding the global coronavirus pandemic, the tour would seem unlikely. Although this is saddening news for many is us, we won’t let it dampen our spirits. We will make it to Krakow! (Figuratively speaking, see below)

Now, more than ever, is the time for us to band together, and so as a club we wanted to do our bit for the nation and help make a difference! Therefore, as a club, we decided each of our teams and our Alumni would collectively run, jog or walk the distance to Krakow from Oxford. That would involve each of our teams of “high-calibre performance athletes” and our Alumni covering a distance of 1,739 km over the next few weeks. Cumulatively that’s 13,912 km!

In these extraordinary times a lot of our attention around charities and donations can be diverted towards the NHS, and rightfully so, they’re doing an incredible job and are some of the true heroes of this country - you’ve probably seen the Run5Donate5Nominate5 challenge going around. But this can mean a lot of other charities can miss out on getting the necessary funding they deserve to do the amazing work that they do! With this in mind, we have asked each team to nominate a charity of their choosing (please see below for details) in which they would like to run for. During the course of our journeys we would be very grateful if you could support us through donations. No matter how big or small, all donations are greatly appreciated and it all adds up! Once the teams have made it to Krakow, we will then divide it up between the nominated charities.

The charities which each team has chosen to run for, which collectively as a club we are supporting, are detailed below. They all do fantastic work that is relevant now more than ever due to the impacts of Covid-19:

Men’s Blues - https://www.weseehope.org.uk (A UK based organisation supporting vulnerable children in Southern and Eastern Africa)

Women’s Blues - http://rosauk.org (A domestic violence charity working to help make the UK a fairer, safer place for women)

Occasional’s’ - https://www.keenoxford.org (Striving to provide equal opportunity to be included in community-based social and recreational activities for everyone – based in Oxford)

Radicals - https://www.trusselltrust.org (An organisation aiming to end hunger and poverty in the UK, campaigning to reduce the need for food banks)

Infrequents - https://www.oxfordshiremind.org.uk (Oxfordshire based charity making sure anyone with a mental health problem has somewhere to turn for advice and support)

Mavericks - https://www.womensaid.org.uk (An organisation working to provide life-saving services for women and children and looking to build a future where domestic violence is not tolerated)

Sporadics - https://homelessoxfordshire.uk/ (A homelessness support charity based in Oxfordshire providing accommodation, food and security to those in need)

So please donate generously and help us support all those who are out there fighting to make a difference! Let’s be greater than the sum of our parts!

#weareallinthistogether