The Start Line

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?...  

Link to BBC news article on slavery : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25040741

Link to the TRC website : http://www.trc-uk.org/

Link to my mydonate page : https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/runningintorecovery