I was born on a continent that shares both privilege and poverty, and my childhood was one of relative privilege. I have always felt sadness towards the poverty experienced by so many in Africa, but I have had a dullness associated with coping with privilege.

I have now taken the daunting decision to no longer just spare a thought for those in poverty, by thinking how it might be a good idea to give some money or sponsor a child from my position of relative privilege, but it is my time to play my part in the fight to eradicate child poverty.

I have decided to use my passion for running as a way to raise money to provide children who live in poverty the means and opportunity to not just survive each day, but to thrive, develop and grow into the people that they are capable of being. My hope and desire is to see children being trained and educated in their communities to enable those communities to thrive and in turn these communities changing countries that are stuck in poverty.

Compassion UK is a charity that has the same desire to eradicate child poverty and give practical support to children to enable them to realise their full potential and dreams. This vision comes with a challenge, being that those of us who are of relative privilege need to give financial support to enable children, adults, families and communities to walk that journey out of poverty. 

I have decided to join a team from 4MUK to run a journey of 26 miles on the dirt roads of Uganda to raise money that will be used directly to release children from poverty. I have been a runner since I was about 11 years old and love training hard, and competing hard to get the fulfilment from accomplishing personal running goals. Running has almost exclusively been for my own pleasure and I have always tried to avoid running to raise money. The time has come to change that and use my running ability to enable other people to hopefully one day feel fulfilment from accomplishing their goals.

I ask that you consider your response to child poverty. If you are able to generously give financially to enable many more children around the world to embark on their own personal journey out of poverty then please donate to support these children.

I have a target to either raise £10000 that will be used towards building 5 classrooms in Uganda, or to find sponsors for 10 children at £25 per month. Please donate through Justgiving for single donations or get in touch with me if you would like to sponsor a child.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.