On 13th October 2024 I'll be running the Royal Parks Half Marathon, fundraising for The Brilliant Club.

The Brilliant Club is a charity which mobilises the PhD community to support less advantaged young people access the most competitive universities and succeed when they get there.

I’ve wanted to do a running event to raise money for a charity for a while now, but I wasn’t sure what I cared about enough, and access to education is surely it.

The Brilliant Club is a charity that I've worked for throughout my PhD studies and I think a key thing this charity does is to introduce young people to someone who is studying for, or has a PhD, for the first time. Being involved in a science enrichment programme myself during sixth form, is where I first met someone with a PhD. A group of us visited a private school once weekly to work on research projects in each of the sciences, producing our first scientific posters and presenting our findings at the end. This work kind of blew my mind, and got me thinking about possibilities I didn’t previously know were even possible.

Now I’m on the other side and know there are a lot of great young people out there with unique skills and talents that may not be realised without this kind of support and encouragement. And that’s why I think this is important.