On the 29th May I will be taking on my second London 2 Brighton (L2B)100K race 

London 2 Brighton Challenge - Ultra Challenges

The course goes through all sorts of terrain, 60% of it off road. No part of the route is ringfenced for this event which means that runners have to have their wits about and be mindful of traffic, trainlines, people walking around (often checking their social media at the same time), extremely bad tempered dogs, horses etc. 

In my first L2B (2017) I lost 5 toenails (the paramedics had to patch me up at km 65), my feet were shred to bits with blisters, I had to dive into bushes a couple of times to avoid incoming traffic in narrow country lanes (where people drive like absolute maniacs!) and had a meltdown 4 kms in due to lack of sleep the night before. Over the 16 hours I was out there, I jumped over so many stiles and fences I sometimes wondered whether I was in the Grand National. I lost count of the amount of sheep and cows I dodged running through fields. It was a real saga, an amazing experience. After the events of the last 12 months,  it feels like a real privilege to be able to take on this epic race again.

If you think that this is a bit full on, it is a joke when you compare it to the journeys many refugees go through, leaving their homes behind,  fleeing conflict to seek safety in the UK. Many of them have no choice but to pay smugglers to make a perilous journey to Britain. And then they have to face our Home Secretary bending over backwards to publicly vilify them, passing draconian laws designed to punish them for their desperation, at the same time as taking aim at the "activist lawyers" who represent them. Interestingly, she says it like it's a bad thing. 

So after surviving the most unimaginably horrendous and dangerous journeys , asylum-seekers and plunged in a hostile environment  designed to make them feel unwelcome and unwanted. Activist lawyers like us can only do so much to support clients throughout the process. We fight tooth and nail for our clients to get them the justice they deserve. However, the process is usually very lengthy, often spanning several years. During this time, our clients are left in limbo, not being able to work or study in the UK, stuck in a cruel  purgatory for years and years. 

Fortunately organisations like Refugee Action are out there to offer asylum-seekers a lifeline in their hour of need, giving them day to day support - both practical and emotional-,  coordinating an army of kind hearted volunteers, providing essential supplies such as nappies or blankets which sometimes are not available in the accommodation provided by the UKVI and cannot be funded out of the princely weekly sum of £39.33 per person provided by the National Asylum Support System (NASS).

For more information on Refugee Action's work check out their website 

Home - Refugee Action (refugee-action.org.uk)

It is very sad that large sections of the British public are so disparaging of refugees. Many would argue that our island is full, complaining that "these people" could ask for asylum in some of the European countries they travelled through on their way to the UK. There are many reasons why refugees risk life and limb to travel to Britain, too many for me to discuss here. The most obvious one is rooted on the legacy of the British Empire. However, this is not the only reason. 

The work of Refugee Action is crucial and essential. Just by way of example, £10 provides a refugee family with essential supplies such as nappies, blankets and food. £50 could help someone seeking safety (e.g. a victim of human trafficking) to find accommodation to avoid street homelessness. £200 could pay for 10 advice sessions with an interpreter, so that people can learn about their rights in a language they understand. And the list goes on and on.

Doing L2B again will be a walk in the park in comparison with what our very brave clients go through, both fleeing to the UK and enduring the asylum process. 

So please dig deep if you can and make a donation. It will literally be lifechanging. If you are a UK taxpayer, make sure you Gift Aid it!  It makes such a difference.

If you live between London and Brighton you may very well bump into me on the 29th May. Make sure you say hello and feed me some sugary treats. I am going to need all the help I can get.

Thank you for your support.

Ana "Wild Dog" González