In 26 days time I will be running 2.6 miles in (hopefully) 26 minutes. This will be the furthest I've run in living memory. Historically, my body is about as reliable as my puns are regular. As a result I've never consistently exercised for 26 days or worked towards an exercise goal. However, I've also never had a cause I believe in, like Universify, to motivate me and my fragile body to drag itself over finish the line.

Currently a student's background (where they live and go to school, ethnicity, parental income) determines whether they're likely to go to university or not. For many of these students they believe university particularly highly-selective universities, are not for 'people like me', which leads to the underrepresentation of low-income families in higher education. The closure of schools risks making this participation gap even greater. We are looking to close this widening gap to ensure a more diverse university population and normalise university as a choice. We want every young person to have the opportunity to achieve their potential in education.

We've taken our programme online to continue to help students achieve their potential in education, and as a UK registered Charity with no state funding we rely on generosity of donations to achieve these aims.

It has been an inspiration and a privilege to work with Universify participants, to see their confidence grow and progress towards achieving their potential. and I'm excited to be able to support the next cohort of students.