I have always thought about doing a marathon but never found a reason to do one. But after starting running with a local group during the pandemic I have found, the confidence and support to do one as well as a reason.

I have done a few runs in Edinburgh whilst visiting my new niece, and it has made me realise how lucky she, and her two older cousins are. These three girls are lucky, not only do they have me as an aunt (!), but more importantly they, like I did, will grow up in a country where they they will be provided an education which will maximise their chances of getting the best possible start in life. It will be them who will be spearheading their country’s economic growth and development in barely a decades time....

Unfortunately many children are no so lucky; and thats why I am running the Sierra Leone Marathon https://street-child.org/challenges/the-sierra-leone-marathon-2024/ in May this year, raising money for Street Child https://street-child.org/

In Sierrra Leone I won't be aiming for a fantastic marathon time (it will be 30+ degrees!) but look forward to challenging myself, visiting the country where the charity started, and importantly seeing where the money is going and how it impacts the lives of children in the area.

Did you know, for example that 250 million children are currently out of school worldwide? Or that in Afghanistan, children are being denied education on the basis of gender? An estimated 3.7 million children in that country – of which 60% of girls – are out of school. Cast your mind back a couple of years to the height of the Covid pandemic: parents up and down the land were upset about the prospects and potential consequences of their children missing *a few weeks* of school. Imagine how the parents of children denied an education.

Since Street Child was founded back in 2008, it has impacted over 1 million children worldwide. In Sierra Leone alone – the organisation’s birthplace – it has reached over 246,000 children. Since his beginnings, it has expanded its operations to 15 or so countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Most recently, it has partnered with local organisations in Ukraine (6.2 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries, decimating the prospects of getting education for a whole generation of children).

Any country’s most precious natural resource is… it’s children. It really is a no-brainer – we should be maximising these young people’s chances of getting the best possible start in life. I hope that my run will provide reason for you to donate to this charity and improve the chances of a few young children somewhere in this world!