On Friday 10th March a band of Thames Water runners embarked on a 24hr
run through the night to raise money and awareness for WaterAid. This
was our third 24hr run and turned out to be our most eventful!
We had a cricket scoreboard on site to tally up the miles and show how
many litres of water we were carrying. We wanted to highlight the lengths
that people have to go to to fetch water in developing nations – a lady
in Ghana has to walk 9 miles to fetch 20 litres of water for her
family. With the support of Tesco shoppers we would be enabling
WaterAid to help meet the needs of these people.
The event kicked off at 7pm with Bernie and Sim running off at a steady
7miles an hour. Humphrey enjoyed mingling with the shoppers and
cheering…a few drunk lads wanted a ride on our camel and we thought
it was soon time for him to retreat to bed (it would be a long
Saturday).
Olly and Keith took us through until 1am, before Geoff and Simon took
on the early hours until sunrise. At 7am with 82 miles and 12 hours
behind us our trusty treadmill started to smell a little off. I thought
we were burning rubber (going a little fast) and hoping this was
something I could ignore for the next 12 hours. Jackie took over the
running and I took a quick peek under the hood of our machine…Fire,
Fire! The security guard on duty was on the ball and handed me an
extinguisher…psssss…and all was calm.
Now What? We couldn’t just stand still for the next 12hrs. Simon had a
good idea…a few minutes later we assembled our newly purchased
exercise bike and started peddling. Good thing Tesco stock just about
everything (apart from a treadmill).
Humphrey had a great day with the kids and even put in the final stint on the exercise bike. (ps video evidence to follow)
The public were so supportive throughout the event and gave generously.
We raised £1217 for WaterAid over the 24hr period. With Thames Water
matched funding the event £4£ will bring the total to £2434.
Thanks for all the support, I am really chuffed. This offering will
make a real difference towards bringing water & sanitation to
people in need.
Geoff
