I have recently signed up for the Kick4Life All Stars Project, which is taking place in Lesotho, Southern Africa in March 2024.

The charity Kick4Life has been active since 2005, set up by a good friend of mine and his brother.

Their main aim of the charity is to change the lives and long-term prospects of vulnerable young people in Lesotho, through a wide range of social development activities focused on health, education and support towards sustainable livelihoods. 

On day 1, the first task for myself and the other project members will be to receive intensive training in health, education and life skills activities by the local coaches. 

Then after a couple of days it'll be time for us to present this knowledge to the children enrolled in the charity. We will do our best to convey these lessons in a fun but informative way, to help to support their educational needs.

Lesotho is a beautiful country with a rich history and culture, but unfortunately it has the worlds second highest prevalence of HIV (23.2%) and more than 160,000 children have been orphaned.

The charity uses its passion for football to address these issues, helping young people to stay healthy, achieve their potential and contribute to the sustainable development of their country.

As a local enthuiastic youth level football and running coach, I look upon this project as something that will not only broaden my coaching perspective,  but also my life perspective on what is happening around the world in areas that are not as fortunate as we are.

The fact that these children live their life in the circumstances they are born into, I'm confident that this trip will also help me become a more balanced person by seeing life through their eyes. Hopefully it'll provide me with a better outlook on life and one I can relay it to my family and children that I coach locally to me.

I have always wanted to embark on a project that helps children, and the fact that this is heavily centred around sport, it feels like the perfect opportunity.

I ran the TCS London Marathon in October 2022 to help raise money to help fund the project.

I'll also be running the TCS London Marathon in 2023 via a Good For Age entry, as I ran a time of 02:58 at Beds Autodrome Marathon in March, which qualified me for this method of entry. 

I'll also be organising various fundraising activities over the next year to help raise funds towards the project.

If you've read this far I thank you for your time, anything you can donate would be massively appreciated.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.