Well first off, Hi! Welcome to my blog. I’ll just explain a
bit about why I’ve created it. I’m running a marathon in AID of the TRC and
decided to create a blog about the training process so that people thinking of
sponsoring me can actually see what I’m doing, and for any other people just
interested. I’ll update each week on Friday evenings. This first one’s a little
long I warn you but I promise they’ll be shorter from now on. Thank you for
taking the time to read all my little words.
I write this
towards the end of my first week of marathon training having just finished
reading an article on BBC news telling us that three women have just escaped 30
years of slavery to a couple in central London. THATS GREAT!! Awesome in fact!
Thanks to the presence of great charities like Freedom we’re seeing people
released from lives of undeserved misery, bondage, and pain. What’s not so
great is the fact they had to be freed in the first place. And the fact that
they have to now go out into a completely changed world and somehow cope with
the trauma inflicted by thirty years of forced servitude. A life of slavery is
unfortunately still a very real existence for too many children and adults and
I hope you share in my feelings that it is not acceptable.
Over the summer I
became aware that modern day slavery is an issue and realised I wanted to help.
At the same time I heard about the Trauma Recovery Centre (TRC) which is a
charity providing care and therapy for children and their carers who are recovering
from trauma. The work the TRC carries out isn’t solely focused on anti-slavery,
it does much more than. It consists of four projects:
TRC Therapy –
Providing therapy for children and their carers who have experienced
trauma helping them to process what
they have experienced and recover. .
TRC Training
– Helping train outside bodies in awareness factors for trauma as well as
providing training events for therapists.
Treehouse Project – One of the few projects in
the UK aimed specifically at providing professional aftercare for victims of
human trafficking.
Oakside
Creative Education Centre – A centre providing alternative education in a
therapeutic environment for children that otherwise struggle in main school
environments.
The trauma recovery centre relies completely on donations
and fundraising in order to keep operating and providing their service for free
to the public. This is why I decided to try and raise
money for the TRC. I feel any money raised will be most effectively used by the
TRC as it is a small organisation less well known than nationwide charities
like Freedom and carries out work that makes an actual positive effect in
peoples’ lives.
I am running a marathon in aid of the TRC. The 20
week training plan which I started this week runs through winter right up to the
race day. Every week on Friday I will be posting an update on the many
challenges I expect to be facing when training for a marathon in winter – short
dark days, running on Christmas day and exam days, numb feet and fingers etc…
So far it’s been fine, my fingers froze up a bit on my 3 mile yesterday but I
can handle cold fingers – what better reason to drink hot chocolate! So I’d
like to invite you to join me as I run through the great British winter in
hopes of creating a brighter future on the other side for all those that will
be helped by the TRC. And maybe even perhaps donate?...
