“It’s the least we can do” - Northowram running club start challenge to raise money for NHS

The club’s ‘Run For The NHS’ challenge will see around 90 runners covering an average of around 60 miles each.

The runners will be adhering to Government guidelines on exercise while doing this - running individually and only running once a day - and the goal is to raise £5,000 for the local NHS trust in Calderdale and highlight the work those staff are doing in the community.

“We can’t do much at this time as runners, but if we can lace up our trainers and try and provide some support to those who are putting their lives on the line for us, it is the least we can do,” said Aaron Bower, from the club.

“Although we aren’t able to meet for our regular club nights or run with our friends at the moment, we are still allowed to exercise once a day per the Government’s guidelines on social distancing.

“Thanks to the hard work of our social secretary, Neil Coupe, we’ve been able to have some internal club competitions which has really kept us all going - but we wanted to see if we could make a difference at such a testing time, too.

“We felt we therefore had a great opportunity to try and support the fantastic work being done by our local NHS staff in Calderdale, who are quite literally putting their lives on the line for our wellbeing.

“We have a great team spirit at the Pumas - it may sound cliche but we genuinely are one big family - and we knew our members would come together and support such a challenging and demanding initiative.

“At the last count, we’re at around 100 members signed up for the challenge, and at the end of the first day, we had already run nearly 200 miles and reached almost £500 in fundraising.

“We know times are tough in the world and people may not be able to donate as much as they normally would to causes like this. But even just sharing our post to raise awareness of what we’re hoping to do would be a huge help at such a difficult for the world.”

To donate to the challenge, visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/pumasrunnhs.

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