So why have I signed up to this crazy challenge? After finishing my master’s at the end of the last year, I couldn’t rest for long without a new project- so I was so stoked to get a place for this iconic event. The fact I got to support a great charity was the cherry on top! You can see I was looking pretty happy after doing the Bury-St-Edmund’s half-marathon as part of training (endorphins + cake).

We are now past the halfway point, and at this point, I won’t lie, it has been getting tough. The weekend long runs are getting long, the dark mornings feel like they will never end, and there never feels like there is enough time! The fact I’ve pledged to raise money for Blueprint is now the main source of my motivation to keep going. I can’t let them down!

So let me tell you a bit about this great charity and why you should support them. I’ve been supporting them since the Black Lives Matter movement, and I think they do great work.

Blueprint are committed to trying to make a more inclusive society. Their focus is improving opportunities for people from diverse ethnic backgrounds or those who have experienced socio-economic disadvantage. For example, Blueprint works with schools, universities and community groups to support young people 13-30 to pursue the career they want. This could be supporting with careers advice or by providing bursaries for training. Blueprint also do research and social policy work- for example, a survey to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic affected young people’s education and career path (it was bad- with 45% of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds giving up their professional dreams- heartbreaking). Finally, Blueprint for All work with community groups, providing consultancy, training, and sharing resources to help these groups maximize their impact.

If you can, I would really appreciate you making any donation big or small- to support this great charity and my marathon dream. I would also be grateful if you can share my page onwards with a couple of friends to help us move towards the fundraising target and raise awareness of Blueprint’s work.