Fancy running a marathon to raise money for a charity? That’s what a member of our team is doing next month. We caught up with Jason and asked him about his challenge so far.
Who are you?
My name is Jason and I am the Head of Community Programmes at Blackpool FC Community Trust, where I have worked for the past four years.
What are you doing?
I’m running the Manchester marathon on October 10th, which I’m really excited about as it is my first ever marathon, having previously completed a few half marathons.
How is training going so far?
Good, although I say that with a real sense of trepidation as the big fear is that I get injured. But so far so good and it has been amazing to test myself as I’ve already beaten my longest ever distance on two occasions. By the time I finish the marathon (fingers crossed), I will have increased my best distance by three times!
Are you planning to fundraise and if so, why?
I always intended to fundraise, and there was only ever going to be one charity that I would fundraise for. Having that extra responsibility is a bit more pressure but I think it is a good thing as I have no doubt that when I get to 22 miles, I’ll need to find that something else, and at that point it will be the idea of what I am fundraising for that will give me that little extra push/incentive.
Who are you fundraising for and how is it going?
I am fundraising for our own charity, Blackpool FC Community Trust. Blackpool and the Community Trust are great places to work, and to be part of the work we do gives me enormous pride.
This marathon gives me an opportunity to do something else for the town and football charity by raising enough money to purchase two season tickets at the club that we will offer to worthy recipients via partners we work with who are also embedded within our community.
I’m grateful to our Chief Exec, Ashley Hackett, too, as he kindly offered to match fund one of the season tickets. As I’ve managed to raise £510 so far, that has meant we were able to buy the season tickets at the start of the season. We have been able to use them for the first two games of the season, v Cardiff City and Coventry City, where participants who had excelled were offered them. The feedback we got was amazing and I think it will go down really well.
As I have already hit my target this means we are now able to think forward to next years season too!
Is there another way people can show support?
If people want to sponsor me, they can find my page on the Just Giving website. Alternatively, if there are any charities out there that do good work in the community, and might want to be considered as a nominating partner, we’d certainly be keen to hear from them. They can email me via jason.white@bfcct.co.uk and we can take it from there.
Good luck for your challenge Jason! We are all behind you and can’t wait to see how you get on!