When not running the Guitar Social, I run a charitable organisation I founded back in 2018. We do everything that the Guitar Social does but for free, and for people who wouldn't consider music tuition an option. This might be because they are living with complex illnesses, like blindness or partial sightedness, or it might be because their personal circumstances are too difficult to consider leisure time or activities that lead to personal growth, circumstances like homelessness, addiction or recovery from any number of harrowing, but not insurmountable, factors.

When life is a gauntlet that you run on the daily, running your fingers across a fretboard is the last thing you would consider doing as a means to bring respite and relief to your situation.

You might have noticed that I have used the word run, and running, a few too many times here. But with good reason...

On the morning of Thursday the 19th of February, I'll be setting off from my house in South East London to run the 26 kilometres it will take me to get to Wembley Stadium, the home of legends. I'm doing this because the people I teach are the true definition of legends, and their journey is often tough — way tougher than what I'll face on what is very likely to be another rainy day in London.

I'll be using the money raised to buy new guitars for a project I am working on in Westminster, where I teach up to twenty adults with various needs. The guitars we have aren't enough. I want new guitars, strings, capos and cases. With your help, I'd like to gift each of my students an instrument that they can take pride in, take care of, and use to enjoy time for themselves in a life that often doesn't provide enough moments of joy. And, as many of you will know, there are few things more joyous than making music with other people.

You can join me on the run via a WhatsApp group where I'll be sharing my live location and posting updates.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thanks for your donation. I'll make sure the money goes on good stuff, in the direction of great people.

Thomas