You may or may not know that our director and tour guide Tom loves running.
He also hates writing Christmas cards.
So in a pretty extreme way to get out of writing cards this year, Tom and his running buddy Jono are doing a running challenge and donating to a fabulous charity called YoungMinds instead.
YoungMinds supports children with mental health issues, and their families
As parents – and Jono is also a teacher – we are becoming all too aware of some of the ‘side effects’ of Covid-19, including the effects on children’s mental health. Young Minds is a charity which supports children and young people with mental health problems (Covid-related or not), and their families.
In the UK today, an estimated five children in every classroom has a mental health problem. A quarter of 17 year-old girls have self-harmed in the last year while suicide remains the single biggest killer of boys and young men. But things can get better.
Young Minds provide young people with tools to look after their mental health and they empower adults to be the best support they can be to the young people in their lives.
“The 12km of Christmas” running challenge
The challenge is “The 12km of Christmas”. On Christmas Day Tom and Jono will run 1km, 2km on Boxing Day, 3km on the 27th December and so on and so forth, until Twelfth Night (5th January) where they will run 12km.
I appreciate this doesn’t sound like an enormous distance (Tom has already quipped that he doesn’t know *when* he’s going to find a spare 4 minutes to run 1km on Christmas Day…) but it adds up.
A lot.
It actually equates to 78km (approx. 50 miles) over 12 days, without a rest.
Ouch.
If you can spare a pound or two, please help us raise funds for YoungMinds this Christmas
I know it’s a big ask, just a few days before Christmas, but if you’re able to donate to this worthwhile cause, we hope you will support Tom, Jono and children across the UK by sparing a few pennies – the link to donate online is here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/5vwuf-the-12kms-of-christmas
Oh and if they hit their target, Tom and Jono are going to do their final run dressed as Forrest Gump… There will be photographic evidence, so that’s got to be worth dipping into your pocket for right?
Thanks for reading – and, from our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the team at Go Cotswolds.