On Sunday 4th May, SERC Uniformed Protective Services will participate in the Moy Park Belfast City Marathon as part of a team relay. The team consists of five runners and two substitutes.

Remaining class members will volunteer at the event for the Marathon’s official charity, Air Ambulance NI. They will provide advice, guidance, direction and support to members of the public. In carrying out this role, the students will demonstrate skills required for the protective services.

The students are studying the Teamwork and Leadership unit. Participation in this event will allow them to meet assessed criteria as they will be completing a team activity with one student assigned as a leader who will brief and debrief the team.

The students are also studying a unit on volunteering. As part of completing this, students must carry out voluntary work. They are currently working towards Volunteer Now Impact Awards and have been working alongside several voluntary organisations to achieve this. This fundraising activity allows them to accrue hours towards this additional qualification.

Physical fitness is required for all protective service jobs, with fitness tests for the roles commonly consisting of a timed run. The team will be putting themselves out of their comfort zones and have been training hard in preparation for this. You can follow their training journey by liking the Facebook Page- SERC Uniformed Protective Services. We hope current record holder, Negewo Ararisa from Ethiopia is ready to defend his title against SERC Uniformed Protective Services!

The team have decided that their chosen charity is Cancer Focus NI as several of the team have previously volunteered for the charity through their course at various events.

On behalf of the team, I would be very grateful if you could spare a couple of minutes and donate a small amount of money towards this worthwhile cause which the team care about. Your donation will go a long way in helping the charity to provide care and support services for cancer patients and their families, offer a range of cancer prevention programmes to help people lessen their risk of getting cancer, fund scientific research into the causes and treatment of the disease and campaign for better health policy to protect our community and its future.

By donating you will also be supporting Team SERC Uniformed Protective Services who are representing the college at Northern Ireland's biggest sporting event whilst putting other people first.