The lockdown has been hard on a lot of people, and certainly many of the people that Brighton Lifelines support - those 50+.

When all of our regular activities had to stop, and many of our older volunteers had to isolate, others stepped up and new ones came aboard. They did shopping trips, friendly phone calls, and remote activities by Zoom, post, and even the good old telephone. They were superstars!

We'd like to thank them as they deserve, with an event and some treats, but we don't have the budget for that. So during Volunteers' Week, I will be running along the river at Shoreham-by-Sea as part of the Virtual 2021 Vitality London 10K Run. And all of the money raised will be spent on our fantastic volunteers.

One big declaration: I'm not a runner. Really. I liked swimming and cycling, and running was something I avoided doing for a bus. Now I'm a very overweight old bloke that discovered that he quite enjoyed the 5K Parkrun on a Saturday morning. Well, Park Walk for the first few months. Took me over an hour. I slowly progressed to Park Jog and found myself doing it by myself during lockdown. Several times a week. Madness. Now I've started doing a 10K.

So, if you would like to help me thank some very wonderful volunteers, you know what to do. If you want to be my finish line let me know, and I'll tell when and where it will be.