Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page - you are simply marvellous.

On the 7th September 2017 I will be setting off from the City Hall in Los Angeles and running 2,850 miles to the Steps of the City Hall in New York in 53 days in order to try and set a new Female World Record. The current record stands at 69 days 2 hrs set in 1979 by Mavis Hutchinson from South Africa.

Free to Run uses running, fitness and outdoor adventure to empower and educate women and girls from areas affected by conflict. Through sports, Free to Run helps individuals and communities combat the harmful effects of gender discrimination and inequality. We work with those currently living in conflict areas as well as refugee populations who have been forced to flee their home countries.

Access to sports is not a luxury; it is a basic human right. Unfortunately, many women and girls around the world are often unable to participate in sports due to widespread discrimination, traditional cultural beliefs, and restrictive gender norms. In areas of conflict, violence and insecurity further constrain their ability to engage in public life.

Free to Run works in areas such as Afghanistan, Hong Kong and South Sudan.

In 2015 I mentored two amazing Afghan women as they prepared to take part in a 250km 7 day self-sufficiency staged race in the Gobi Desert as part of a team - they were to become the first Afghan women to accomplish such an extra-ordinary feat. The obstacles they faced in training were tremendous.

They often faced street harassment if they tried to train in public and even getting access to gym facilities was difficult cult as women. Free to Run had to provide private transport to take the women to and from a local gym during ‘female hours’, where they could spend hours running on a treadmill. On occasion, they found unexploded remnants of wars when they trained in the mountains.

We don’t live in a perfect world and there are still large parts of it where women and girls suffer from inequality. They don’t have the opportunity to participate in any form of sport due to the constraints put on them by the society they live in. In conflict affected communities, women suffer violence, discrimination and abuse, and their access to sport and physical activity is non-existent. Can you imagine living a life like that?

Please help me give these women/girls the opportunity to have the freedom to experience the outdoors which in return will give them back their confidence & self esteem. 

All donations are amazing and will make a massive difference.

Thank you. x