Hi,

Thank you for to supporting me running the 2023 Royal Parks Half Marathon to fundraise for The Felix Project – a London-based charity that sources surplus food from across the capital and redistributes it to the people who need it most. Any size of donation is appreciated. For context on the impact of your generosity a £10 donation will provide food to make 29 meals for a range of charities, or £100 for 290 meals.

If you would like to donate using CAF then the charity number is 1168183 and if you could include a reference of "McCurry Royal Parks" and include iain02@aol.com on the form I will know who to thank. 
  

Background

At the start of July 2023 I did my annual 5km run for charity and determined that I was the fittest that I have been in 10 years and if I trained up, and practiced on a 10k race I could think about attempting a half marathon, having not done 10km since 2015.

Obviously I then did nothing about this until in the end of August when entrance to the Royal Parks Half was closing so in a burst of enthusiasm (or stupidity) I signed up for the run on 8th October as I did not think I would get a chance to do it again in the future after the baby has arrived.

I started researching how to train for a half marathon and all the results came back with a 12 week plan, so I will be relying on my base fitness level, lifetime of stubbornness, and refusal to accept failure to get me through. 

I don't like to let myself down, but also hate letting others down so please support me to provide that final burst of energy towards the end. If the thought of me suffering is not enough for you then please read on to see the good work that Felix does.

Why The Felix Project

I have supported Felix monetarily for a number of years, and a few months ago started donating my time and volunteering in the warehouse once a week. I have found this so rewarding to meet lots of new people, and is so completely different to my normal day to day work life.

I know that I am very fortunate, and that there are a lot of people who are not in the same situation as me. The charities that I support are focused on homelessness and poverty, especially in London. 

Bermondsey and Southwark have huge disparities of wealth, from those that live by the river in million pound flats, to 1 in 7 households which earnt less than £15,000 in 2021. In London, 400,000 children and 1.5 million adults are going hungry and in the UK nearly 1 in 10 parents can't feed their children without the help of food banks and charities. 

What The Felix Project do

The Felix Project is working towards ending London hunger – and winning the fight against food waste.

The Felix project was inspired by the founder’s son, a boy called Felix, who died suddenly from Meningitis in 2014. Felix was full of compassion for those without his advantages. The Felix project idea was born when whilst playing in a boys’ football tournament, he told his father that he’d been upset to learn that many of the 10-year-old boys on the opposing team hadn’t had anything to eat that day.

Felix acts as a redistribution centre that collects fresh, nutritious food from businesses, supermarkets, restaurants and farms that cannot be sold. They deliver this surplus food to London food banks, schools, community kitchens, charities and other community
organisations, so they can provide healthy meals and help the most vulnerable in our society. 

In 2022 they delivered 29 million meals to over 1,000 organisations, with a combined value of over £44m. Nearly all the food we receive is donated by the food industry and volunteers, every £1 of expenditure redistributes £10 worth of food.

https://youtu.be/5HEVo2q0ZhM

For more information then please visit their website (https://thefelixproject.org/) or I am happy to answer any questions that I can.