Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for considering sponsoring me to run the Hackney Half for Crisis!

If I haven't pestered you directly, or if my previous messages haven't convinced you to sponsor me yet, let me tell you a bit more about my journey and how this all started.

This story starts about a year ago, when I went to support a friend (she knows who she is) when she ran the Hackney Half for the first time. An important lesson was learnt that day about my cheerleading skills, i.e. I have none, as I did not manage to spot her once in the 13-miles run. However, all was not lost, for I was inspired by the humongous effort put in by participants in their quest for athletic excellence. And so I asked myself, 'what if you signed up for next year, and showed yourself you can do something you'd never thought you'd be able to do.' Kind of a New Year's resolution, but in May.

11 months and a few sporadic training cycles later, here I am, in a pickle I created for myself. As most of you who are close to me will know, this is very much out of character for me: I am not a runner, or dare I say, even a 'sporty person'. Fearing I might chicken out at the last minute, I came up with the best accountability mechanism of all - running for Crisis.

If you don't already know Crisis, they do amazing work to tackle homelessness and support people affected by it in London and beyond, including:

- Putting some actual figures on the size of the issue: there is no national figure for how many people are homeless across the UK because homelessness is recorded differently in each nation, and because many homeless people do not show up in official statistics (loud sigh from the social researcher in me). To help shape services and campaign effectively, Crisis carries out an annual study showing that tens of thousands of families and individuals are experiencing the worst forms of homelessness across Great Britain.

- Campaigning and lobbying a range of stakeholders in government and beyond to help create lasting change.

- And most importantly, working side by side with people facing homelessness to help them rebuild their lives and leave homelessness behind for good.

Those close to me will have heard me say countless times that homelessness has no place in a modern, developed society like ours. For how we treat the most vulnerable people in our society is the truest reflection of who we are. And, in this cost-of-living crisis, I stand by this more than ever. 

So please please PLEASE - support Crisis and the tremendous work they do by donating as much as you can/ you'd like, to sponsor my run, and help me stick to my new May's resolution 2022!

Thank you!!

Love, 

Charlotte

PS: a minimum of £300 was set by Crisis as the fundraising target, but I believe we can smash this!