Sign up for a new challenge this year by putting on your running shoes in 2021 to raise cash for Martin House Hospice Care for Children and Young People.
After major running events were cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19, the hospice is now hoping people will sign up to join events planned for later this year, including the Great North Run.
Nikki Denton, events fundraising manager at Martin House, said:
We’re so excited to be able to offer places in this year’s runs. We’re all really hopeful that as the Covid-19 vaccine rolls out, everything will go ahead as planned this year.
After the year we’ve all just had, and even though we’ve just returned into lockdown, we hope people will feel still motivated to sign up and take on a challenge, whether they are putting on trainers for the first time or are a seasoned runner.
We have lots of fantastic supporters who had signed up to take part last year, who have retained their spot for 2021, but we still have places available on all our runs.
We can give you lots of advice and support on how to raise your sponsorship while staying Covid-secure. There’s also plenty of time to train for our runs, as they all take place later in the year.
As well as the Great North Run, Martin House has places in the Leeds and York 10Ks, Leeds Half Marathon and the Yorkshire Marathon.
Runners who sign up to run for Martin House each receive a fundraising pack and support from the events team to help them reach their sponsorship target, along with a Martin House running top.
The money they raise goes to help Martin House care for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions from West, North and East Yorkshire, as well as supporting their families.
It provides planned respite care, emergency and symptom control care, end of life care and bereavement support, at the hospice, in hospitals and in people’s own homes.
Nikki added:
Obviously the impact of the pandemic has been devastating to us all in many different ways, but for Martin House it’s hit us hard in our ability to raise the money we need to provide this vital care.
Understandably last year, all the runs we participate in were cancelled, and we also had to cancel virtually all of our own fundraising events, which was a huge blow to us.
It costs nearly £9 million a year to run Martin House, and we expect to lose about £2.2 million in fundraising income due to Covid-19, so we’re really hoping people will feel able to take on the challenge for Martin House.
You can find out more, and sign up at www.martinhouse.org.uk/events
