I’ve somehow signed myself up to run the Great North Run 2027 in support of the Great North Air Ambulance Service… despite running never really being my thing.

So, apparently I run now…

Over the next year, I’ll be attempting to turn myself from someone who would much rather be on a mountain bike or in a kayak into someone capable of making it through a half marathon, hopefully in one piece, from Newcastle to South Shields.

I’m doing it for GNAAS and in memory of my granda, Kevin. GNAAS turned up when we needed them, and I genuinely cannot praise them enough. I wanted to do something positive in his memory while supporting a brilliant local charity that means a lot to me and my family.

GNAAS provides specialist critical care across the North of England and relies heavily on donations to keep its teams responding to emergencies. Unfortunately, me and my family have had first hand experience of needing GNAAS. The team were incredibly supportive during the initial incident and offered continued support to us in the years since.

Most of my hobbies involve mountain bikes, kayaks, snowboards and generally finding ways to hurt myself, I’m probably somewhere on their potential client list anyway… so it’s nice to pay it forward…

There’ll be plenty of running, probably plenty of complaining, and definitely a few questionable decisions along the way, but, like always, I’ll get it done!

If you’d like to chuck a few quid towards the cause, anything at all would be massively appreciated!

Here’s hoping I make it to South Shields before the roads reopen! I’ll be happy with around 2½ hours… anything quicker is a bonus!

Thanks,

Sam