On 22 November 2025, six members of the London Otters Rowing Club will drop their oars and don their running shoes to take part in Positive East's World AIDS Day Red Run 2025. Lisa, Graham, Robbie, Henry, Emmet and Michael will be running to raise funds for METRO, a provider of community and youth services to people experiencing issues around sexuality, gender, equality, diversity or identity in London and the southeast. Whether you can donate pennies or pounds, any contribution is warmly welcomed.

About the London Otters Rowing Club

The London Otters Rowing Club was founded in 2014 by two friends who shared a passion for rowing but struggled to find a club where they could develop their skills as openly gay men. Just over 10 years later, the UK's only LGBTQ-inclusive rowing club has grown to well over 200 members and taught over 500 people to row. It is, and always has been, a community.

As an LGBTQ-inclusive club, we see and feel the effects of HIV and AIDS on people in our community and beyond. While progress has been made in the treatment and the stigma attached to these conditions, inequalities persist. As is too often the case, LGBTQIA+ people, people of colour, trans and non-binary individuals are among those facing the hardest of these challenges. The community of the club has become an attraction just as much as the sport of rowing and it is a community that stands in solidarity with those whose lives have been touched by HIV and AIDS. That is why our members have stepped forward to run this year's Red Run - not just to honour the history of HIV and AIDS but to take meaningful action.

For more information about the London Otters Rowing Club, please see our website: https://www.londonotters.org/

About METRO

The London Otters Rowing Club is based at Royal Docks Watersports on the Royal Albert Dock in East London. It has therefore partnered with METRO, an equality, diversity and inclusion charity that runs health, community and youth services and can trace its roots to the area. The charity started in 1984 as the Greenwich Lesbian and Gay Centre. Today METRO runs health and wellbeing services across London and the southeast, supporting people experiencing issues around sexuality, gender, equality, diversity or identity. METRO does this by working across five areas: Youth, Mental health & wellbeing, Sexual health, HIV, and Community.

For more information about METRO, please see their website: https://metrocharity.org.uk/