The Great North Run takes place on 9 September and this year we have 14 fantastic runners representing Action Foundation, all raising money to support our projects helping vulnerable refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants in Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland!  If you would like to help them to reach their fundraising targets please go to our Virgin Money Giving page.

“Me and my twin brother, Dom, have chosen to run the Great North Run, three-legged. Although we haven’t been involved with Action Foundation directly, we wanted to contribute to the amazing work they do supporting refugees and asylum seekers living in the North-East. The opportunities Action Foundation provides such as offering accommodation and English language courses seem to make an invaluable impact on the lives of vulnerable migrants who have chosen to start a new life in the UK.

We have been training both three-legged and two/four-legged. When training separately, we have been doing regular 10k runs and a couple of shorter ones throughout the week. We will be doing a longer distance half-marathon style soon. For the 3-legged runs, unsurprisingly, it’s slightly more time-consuming. Before we committed to running the Great North Run as a three-legged race, we did a timed 5km to see if running the whole thing would be possible. With a few falls and funny looks off passer-bys, we ran it in about 36 minutes. So hopefully, a 21km (half marathon) run should be possible without taking all day and night.

We have been experimenting with different ways to attach our legs together and which side works best for each of us to run on. At the moment, we have been training with our ankles tied quite close together with a belt and a football sock for some padding. It is hard but possible. When looking up other three-legged long distance runs we also saw they were tied a few inches apart, which seems a lot more comfortable!”

Can you help Jamie and Dom on their three legged challenge?  Here’s the link to their fundraising page https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser…/fundraiserPage…

If you would like to support our runners in this year’s Great North Run, either by way of donation or to cheer them along and greet them at the finish line, then please get in touch with Nikki McCann at [email protected] You can also donate by going directly to our Virgin Money giving account http://bit.ly/2sUbBWRGNR2018