2025 Manchester Marathon with The Great North Children’s Hospital Foundation and British Blind Sport.

Hi everyone, on the 27th April I will be running the Manchester Marathon to raise some money for both British Blind Sport and The Great North Children’s Hospital Foundation. (who operate under the Newcastle Hospitals Charity).

These two charity organisations mean a great deal to me as someone who is partially sighted and spent a lot of time in the hospital growing up. That time gave me a great understanding as to how truly lucky I am to only be suffering with sight loss, given that many of the other children in there at that time (and to this day) were battling far greater challenges, than me or almost anyone else, can fully comprehend. Being around these young children, many of which had life threatening and terminal illnesses, quickly gives you a full perspective on how fortunate you are just to be alive and wake up each day without pain or the worry it could be your last, the fact that many children are facing this reality day in day out, makes it that much more upsetting. This charity aims to support children, from all across the country who are admitted to the Great North Children’s Hospital, in a variety of ways (more details can be found on their website). And so that is why I will be sending 50% of the proceeds their way, in hope that we can all make at least a small difference in the huge battle we face for every child’s health and wellbeing. The other 50% will be heading to British Blind Sport. I think this one is relatively self explanatory; in regard to why someone who can’t see so well, might decide to fundraise for this charity, but I’ll go into some further details nonetheless. With one in two blind and partially sighted people feeling that having sight loss stops them from exercising as much as they want to. And having experienced first hand on countless occasions the significantly positive impact sport can have on a visually impaired person’s life, as it has done for me. It makes it very easy for me to choose BBS as my second charity. Both sport and hobbies in general can provide an opportunity for those with sight loss to develop their independence, social life and physical health. But not only that it can also prove to be a big prospect for such people to greatly exceed what most think those who are visually impaired are capable of. I have been directly involved with British Blind Sport many times through the years and you can be assured a donation would be used to help change many lives through the power of sport, as sport did for me.

As a side note if you’ve made it this far, if I manage to run the marathon in under 4 hours, I will be donating an additional £100 to the pot myself, and just to clarify as a result of that, yes I will still actually try!

Thank you very much in advance if you do decide to donate, it could just be the difference that does a serious world of good in a child and/or visually impaired person’s life.

All the best,
Rhys