The Archdeacon of Dudley, Nikki Groarke will be running the London Marathon on Sunday 3 October to raise money for The Children’s Society.
This will be Nikki’s first marathon - she was originally meant to run it last year, when it was cancelled twice due to the pandemic and since then has suffered a broken humerus! She is raising funds for The Children’s Society to help them continue to run local services for children who feel scared, unloved and unable to cope.
Nikki said:
“I feel like it’s been a huge challenge to even get to the start line of the London Marathon! The training has been really tough, not least because I had to have four months not running at all because I broke my humerus in a fall. However, being able to raise money for such an amazing charity has helped to keep me going – The Children’s Society makes a real difference to the lives of many young people through offering specialist support to enable them to look forward to the future.”
The Children’s Society supports thousands of vulnerable children and young people across a range of issues, including those experiencing or at risk of child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, substance misuse, mental and emotional health problems, or children who go missing or run away from home or care. They have recently launched their Good Childhood Report for 2021, which shows that over 300,000 young people are unhappy with their lives and a quarter of a million did not cope well with the changes during the pandemic.
Archdeacon Nikki will be attending an event hosted by Mark Russell, CEO of The Children’s Society in Birmingham on 22 September to discuss the current state of children's wellbeing in the UK and find out what The Children’s Society is doing to overturn the damaging decline in young people’s well-being that’s left 1 in 5 teenagers in this country unhappy with their lives.
Nikki is hoping to raise at least £5,000 for The Children’s Society, she can be sponsored on her Justgiving sponsorship page.
