We set ourselves one goal: to raise £10,000 for Birmingham Children's Hospital. This page is the story of how a community came together to do it.

It began on the 28th of May, when our team ran 50 kilometres down the canal from Stratford-upon-Avon to the doors of the hospital.

We believe there is no such thing as coincidence, and the date of that run proved it. The 28th of May is National Blood Cancer Awareness Day, and our team member Jess is a blood cancer survivor. The strength, resilience and compassion she has shown is the kind of thing that shifts how you see the world. We ran that day because of her.

It is also exactly three years to the day since the very first Mission Planet fundraising run, when TMP founders Ro and Tom ran the Edinburgh Marathon for an animal sanctuary they volunteered at in Thailand. Everything The Mission Planet is now began on that date.

And then there is Maya. Our second ever fundraiser was the Stratford Half Marathon, which we ran in support of her, the young daughter of a close friend who asked if we could use our platform to support the hospital fighting to treat her cancer. Maya is now a survivor, and she was on the canal with us, running part of the route herself.

The canal connects Stratford to Birmingham Children's Hospital at almost exactly 50 kilometres. It felt like the route had been waiting for us to find it. That journey became a documentary, which will premiere inside the hospital itself this autumn.

The 50km carried us so close to our £10,000 goal. Now we are going to finish the job, together.

Rally for Change is the next chapter. On Friday the 16th of October we are hosting a charity padel tournament at Padel + Play in Stratford-upon-Avon, bringing even more people together to close the gap and smash our target for the hospital. It started with one of us running 80 miles alone. Then a team of us ran 50 kilometres together. Now a whole community is picking up a racket for the same cause.

Birmingham Children's Hospital is one of the most extraordinary places in the country. Every day they save lives and give families their futures back. This is our chance to help them keep doing it.

Because remember, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.

How you can help:

Donate any amount, every pound goes straight to the hospital

Join us at Rally for Change on the 16th of October (themissionplanet.com/rally-for-change)

Share this page with anyone who might be moved by it

Thank you. From all of us.

The Mission Planet team 🌏