About me

Hi, welcome to my fundraising page! My name is Sean Clement and I'm running the 2022 London Marathon. This is my first marathon and I am not a natural long-distance runner! I've been lucky enough to get a place through the ballot and am choosing to use this to raise funds for Comfort Angels, a football team set up to bring integration and inclusion to refugees and women seeking asylum in Liverpool.

About Comfort Angels

Comfort Angels were set up in 2019 in Liverpool by Comfort Etim. Comfort was born in Nigeria and moved to the UK at the age of 17, playing youth trials for the women’s team of a premier league club. Eventually, she found her way to Liverpool where she set up the team, which provides a safe space for women from all walks of life.

In Comfort’s own words, "We use football as an initiative to empower women and promote integration. We use it to empower them physically, mentally and socially – we’ve become a community, friends and is looking more like a family at the moment!" At the moment, the team has about 20 members and recieve funding through Amnesty International and donations from members of the public. The team train together, enter football tournaments and players have stepped up to take coaching qualification and some are even talking about becoming referees! You can learn more about the team and their story is this video:

I hold no copyright or responsibility for the above video, produced by shado magazin, made in collaboration with Amnesty International UK and was supported by Mishcon de Reya, Necessity and This Fan Girl. Read Shado's excellent piece to accompany the video here: https://shado-mag.com/comforts-angels/

Why Comfort Angels?

I heard of Comfort Angels through The Anfield Wrap (you can hear the podcast, from their City Stories series at the link below) and Comfort's story touched me - she spoke about Liverpool as a city of sanctuary and that the team is a place for refugees and asylum seekers in Liverpool to find a safe space, inclusion and integration whilst they move through the systems and processes to find a long-term home in the UK. These systems are becoming increasingly challenging to navigate recently, the UK Gov’t passed the refugee bill, meaning only refugees arriving through limited, protected and official routes can legally claim protection. Living on around £39 per week, people entering the UK fleeing from persecution and conflict then enter system that is described as difficult, time consuming and mentally draining. Comfort set up the team as a safe space to have fun, get fit and also share experiences with other women and families who are in, have been or about to enter the system. This story made me want to support the team in whatever way I could, for whatever purpose they see fit.

The Anfield Wrap City Stories: https://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2022/06/podcast-comfort-angels-liverpool-city-stories/

About the marathon and my training

If you're in any way interesting in how things are going on the physical and mental preparation, I'll be posting in the run-up to the marathon. As things stand, I've got about a month and a half to go. Feeling good about it but 26.2 miles is a long way and I guess we'll just have to see how it goes on the day! I have a target time of 4hrs 30m. I can only assume your generosity will help me go faster!