Half Marathon Charity Challenge for Mark!

Mark strongly believes everyone has the basic right to access food and, combined with a personal desire to improve his fitness which saw him help establish the Edinburgh Lunchtime Running Club at Baxters’ Edinburgh office, he decided to raise money for anti-poverty charity, Trussell, and set himself a new challenge.

The Edinburgh Marathon Festival (EMF) takes place over the weekend of 24^th & 25^thMay, with various running events, ranging from the kids’ kilometre to the full marathon, across the two days. The EMF half marathon is on Sunday 25^thMay, with the 13.1 mile route starting at Potterrow on the south side of the city and hitting many iconic venues of Edinburgh before finishing along the coast at Musselburgh.

Mark has never run this distance before and his training has involved building up running distance by doing a 1-2 mile run a few mornings a week and running a longer distance of 6-7 miles at the weekend.

Mark says: “Having only taken up running regularly recently, this is quite a big challenge for me; however, I am determined to do my best and, most importantly, raise as much as I can to support the fantastic work of Trussell. Every donation will help make a difference to those who are struggling to afford life’s essentials and, ultimately, help Trussell work towards its goal of a UK where no-one needs to rely on a food bank to survive.

“All donations and support will help spur me on and be very gratefully received and appreciated.”

With just over six weeks to go until the event, Mark has set up a fundraising page and is hoping to raise as much he can to support Trussell’s work.

Trussell is an anti-poverty charity and community of 1,400 food bank locations. They work together to ensure no one in the UK needs a food bank to survive, while providing emergency food and practical support for people left without enough money to live on.

The partnership forms a key pillar of Baxters charity activity. Aligned with the company’s ethos to ‘be different, be better’ and demonstrating its values in action, the partnership highlights Baxters commitment to giving back to the communities in which it operates through a national charity partnership.

The funding being provided by Baxters, in the first year of the partnership, will support projects that provide tailored advice on money matters and support to people facing hunger and hardship, as well as supporting the charity’s general body of work.