Watching Sport Relief on this evening has brought to a close a great day for me. But watching this programme has reminded me just how amazingly fortunate I am. It really puts into perspective the troubles in your life that you think are hardships, when in fact they’re mere bumps on your journey. Amongst the usual wee inducing comedy provided by such a programme, the footage that I’ve watched this evening has been really humbling and incredibly moving.
My alarm went off this morning around 6am, no earlier than usual. But instead of heading out with Kate for a cheeky few miles around the Water Park, I clicked play on my iPod, pulled down the straps on my back pack and headed off to the office…..running. Weirdly, considering the amount of running I actually do, I’ve never actually run to the office before. The reason for ditching the car this morning was part of the Sports Relief activities we’d set up at work. By Getting (active) To Work, we wanted to encourage people to get off their arse, get active and do something sport inspired to kick start their day. In addition to this, we also set up our very own Sport Relief Mile around our business park & down by the River Mersey.
If I’m honest, I had my doubts when we started planning this and I was dubious to its success. But whoa, was I proved wrong! I somehow managed to convince half the office to get active before getting to the office – so much so that collectively we covered over 100 miles today. 100 miles that would never normally have been covered. From the 16 of us that did it, there were two shining stars, Maggie & Sheila, who covered nearly 30 of those miles between them cycling from afar to the office.
The best bit was when Sheila said “you know what, this has inspired me to ride into the office more often”. I know it sounds a bit geeky, but I got such a buzz when I heard that. To think that I played a part in inspiring someone else to get active or sporty is really cool I think.
Then came the Sport Relief Mile. We didn’t attract the million runners that Sunday looks to get, but we did have 8 keen participants who set out walking, jogging, running, and even skipping their way around the course. Fully recovered from his hellish experience at Hell Runner in February, Phil played a blinder finishing in just over 7 minutes.
But putting aside all this frivolity for a moment, there was a reason we planned a day of sport related fun in the office – to help raise money for some truly amazing causes, both here in the UK and abroad. One of the causes that caught my eye, was that of Combat Stress, and how they have helped changed the lives of so many men & women of the Armed Forces. I want to share with you the story of Neil:
Sport Relief helps so many different charitable organisations and so many different people from around the world. But the thing that has really moved me today is the British public. And not just in the way that we’re really good at giving money for good causes (the last total I saw was more than £30,000,000) but the way in which we…..
…..get inspired.
The way in which we get up and get involved. David Walliams swimming the Thames, Helen Skelton’s Polar Challenge & John Bishop’s Week of Hell. 3 people who have helped to raise over £5m between them. It just goes to show that when you have a goal, nothing will get in your way to achieve it (also helps if you have the backing of Radio 1 or Blue Peter too).
So as Sport Relief whets our appetite for a year crammed packed with sport, I hope that it has inspired more people to do their bit, get active and challenge them self to something new, something outside of their comfort zone and something that could maybe make all the difference to the lives of others.
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Help for Heroes [21:21] Challenge
Help for Heroes [21:21] Challenge 