I think a lot of people may assume that some of these larger charities – like Cancer Research UK get so much sponsorship that they don’t need your help too. In fact, I kind of thought that before I took part in one of their Race For Life events earlier this year and listened to the guy on the microphone talking about how important all the sponsorship money is and how much it helps. This started to make me realise that every single person taking part truly does makes a difference. So I thought I would share this – some quick thoughts on the impact running for charity, and specifically in this case Cancer Research UK.
Cancer Research UK – what do they do?
In the 1970s, less than a quarter of people with cancer survived. But over the last 40 years, survival has doubled – today half will survive.
I think this fact, from the CRUK website pretty much sums up what progress has been made… and within the next 20 years they hope to be able to see 75% of people with cancer survive. When you consider the number of people you personally know that have been touched by cancer in some way – this may start to make sense of how many people that 75% could represent. It is THOUSANDS. Imagine that. It is an amazing statistic. CRUK focus on 4 key areas: prevantion, early diagnosis, development of new treatments and optimising current treatments. They also cover all types of cancer across all age groups. I know because Race For Life is all pink you may think that the focus is on breast cancer, but it is not, their mission is across the board. To do this there are, of course, enormous costs…. and here’s the big bit…. CRUK is funded soley on donations. It receives no official funding, just donations. Personally, I didn’t realise this. Appreciating the scale of their work means that now I can truly see the impact every individual can have. To learn more about the research and the work that CRUK do – please go to their website here.
Race For Life
CRUK holds many fundraising events that you can take part in and one great way to take part is to join up for one of their Race For Life events. They are a mixture of different races 5k’s, 10k’s, half marathons and marathons, as well as their well known Pretty Muddy 5k’s which I took part in recently. All the races have a great atmosphere, light hearted and female only… I love one of their tag lines “..hell hath no fury like a woman in pink…” They provide training guides and advice should you want and make the whole process of taking part in such an event really straight forward; so if you have never done anything like this before – there really is no need for any worry. They have taken all the stressful bits out and all that is left for you to do is the appropriate training and getting there on the day! Race for Life events are held all over the UK and there are still more to come (incase you missed all the spring and summer ones!)
- In London, Lee Valley – there are half and full marathons on 4th October. Click here for the details.
- New Pretty Muddy dates added for Cardiff, Cheshire, Leeds, Clumber Park, Glasgow, Windsor, Swindon and Portsmouth – check here for details.
In conclusion…
In this post I have chosen to focus on Cancer Research UK, however, there are obviously countless of exceptionally well deserving charities out there you can raise money for. I wholeheartedly recommend finding one that you feel personally passionate about. When I ran the London Marathon, it is what got me through rainy, cold training runs and through miserable early mornings when it was still pitch black outside…. nothing will ever drive you more than knowing that what you are doing could help save other people and improve someone else’s quality of life…that what you are doing could actually make a real difference.
Find out more on their websites:
Cancer Research UK
Race for Life
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