I’m running the Manchester Marathon to raise money for White Ribbon - a charity that deals with early education of men and boys around violence towards women. 

The Manchester marathon in April will be my first, and I’ve been enjoying upping my training mileage. To fit things around work and family, most of my runs have been done in the morning or evening, and given the time of year (picking up the miles from January onwards) that has meant that most on my runs are in the dark. 

At the beginning of January I purchased a running light, meaning I could do some loops on the incredibly badly lit Birmingham canals. During one of these evening runs I unfortunately ran straight in to a situation where a lady was being mugged by 3 men. They ran off as I arrived (thanks running light), but the lady was understandably incredibly distressed and explained that they had pulled a machete on her from behind and stolen her phone. The whole thing was scary and depressing - leaving me feeling completely broken for the lady who will likely never feel safe out walking again and completely depressed for the 3 young men whose circumstances and choices had led them to that moment. 

I hadn’t been intending to run for charity, but I’ve reflected lots on the situation since it happened. I understand of course that no gender is immune from an opportunistic mugging, but the reality is that most violence against women is committed by men. I’m sure that every woman who is at the start line of the marathon will have had to adapt her training somehow to compensate for the risks she takes every time she wants to go out for a simple run. This won’t be the case for most of her male counterparts. Me included.

I picked White Ribbon because of their focus on education and prevention. Their mission is to prevent men’s violence against women and girls by addressing its root causes — harmful and dominant masculine norms.

If you could give a few quid I would appreciate it!