Hello friends,

In 10 days (at time of writing) I will be running the Great North Run. I wasn’t, as of an hour ago, but here we are. I’m going to do my best in those 10 days to raise some money for Newcastle’s West End Refugee Service, and I’ll tell you why.

I had pulled out of the GNR due to injury and fitness. I have long standing knee issues that have kept me from training. I’m under physio for tendon issues and waiting for scans to find out why my joints sound like maracas dragged along a gravel path. I’ve struggled to run, dropped fitness, gained weight and until a few weeks ago, the longest run I’d managed without stopping was a mile. The GNR is 13.1 miles.

It’s long been obvious the sensible decision is not to take part this year. However, current events in this county have led to a last-minute determination to pull on the sweatbands and hit the pavement for a cause.

There is a current dangerous wave of anti-immigrant sentiment being stoked by media, politicians, social media algorithms and bots. Euphemistic flag waving is rapidly evolving into unmasked racism and hatred. Some of the most vulnerable people are being scapegoated for decades of managed economic decline.

People are being manipulated and radicalised into believing their enemies are in hotels instead of penthouses, and naive folk are becoming bedfellows with malicious actors and neo-Nazis. ‘Legitimate concerns’ begets ‘close the borders’, begets ‘send out the gunships’ begets ‘deport everyone not white’.

I saw a well known British comic being repeatedly racially abused on Elon Musk’s X platform this week. I reported several of the comments, only to be told they had not ‘broken X’s safety policies’. Racist abuse is confirmed as acceptable on the world’s biggest online platform.

It feels like we’re living in the middle of the news montage at the start of a dystopian movie. At this point, discussion and debate feels powerless to stop the orchestrated tide of hatred.

But, I can run, albeit not very well right now. So, that’s what I’m going to do. Any donations I can scrape in will be going to the West End Refugee Service who support Asylum seekers and refugees in Newcastle with drop ins, information, advice, advocacy and essentials.

I cannot stress enough how ill-prepared I am for a half-marathon, both physically and mentally. I don’t even have a 3-hour music playlist curated yet! Here’s hoping experience and adrenaline with be enough to reach the finish line.

There’s not much time at all to raise funds, so I will be matching up to the first £300 of donations. Every little helps. Thank you🙏

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”