I’m running the London Marathon for Spear Leeds, a charity I have had the privilege of working for, for six years.

The Spear Programme supports young people facing barriers to employment into sustainable work or education. This could mean that these young people have spent time in prison, dropped out of education with no GCSEs, have grown up in care, or struggle with mental health issues and crippling self-esteem.

In November 2019, after 15 years of success in London, we launched our first Spear Centre in the North.

Spear Leeds has been hugely successful, especially considering we had to move our in-person programme online during the pandemic. Despite this, on average at 12 months, we are still in touch with over 90% of our Spear Trainees and 69% of them are in work or education.

Please sponsor me to support Spear Leeds and see more young people’s lives changed in this city.