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Olivia Strong started Run for Heroes which has now raised over £ 5 million for UK healthcare workers.
Run for the heroes
A 27-year-old boy started a charity social media challenge aiming to raise £ 5,000 ($ 6,212), but quickly went viral and has now raised over £ 5 million for UK healthcare workers who They fight against Covid-19.
Olivia Strong, a documentary producer in Scotland, came up with the idea for “Run for Heroes” after returning to Edinburgh from London, where she works.
His work on a documentary project had been reduced from five to two days a week due to the coronavirus and related restrictions that have been imposed to prevent its spread. Like many countries around the world, the UK has implemented closure measures that include the closure of many nonessential companies, forcing some companies to cut jobs, leave staff without permission, or reduce their hours.
The UK has almost 153,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University, and has reported more than 20,700 deaths.
Strong initially wanted to spend part of her free time volunteering at the UK National Health Service (NHS). – the government called for volunteers to help the NHS on March 24. However, because Scotland did not immediately open requests, another idea occurred to him.
It was after noticing the number of runners as he jogged near Edinburgh’s famous Arthur’s Seat natural monument that he decided to launch the charity race challenge.
Under UK closure measures, people are allowed to go out once a day to exercise, in addition to leaving the house for essential work or shopping.
“(I) thought there is surely something to this, if we combine our only form of exercise a day that we are currently doing, because everyone is running anyway, then maybe we can make a difference,” Strong said.
He decided on a distance of 5 km (3.2 miles), which he considered to be long enough to “have a sense of accomplishment”, and encouraged people to run, walk or bike, donate £ 5 ($ 6.22 ) and nominate five other people to do the same
“Everyone wants to help because people like me feel helpless,” Strong said.
The initial goal was to raise £ 5,000, to “run 5k to earn £ 5k,” as Strong put it, but the campaign slogan “run, donate, nominate” soon gained popularity on social media.
The runners who completed the challenge went to social networks, shared a photo of his hand and tagged five nominees: it is an image that has been associated with the campaign.
The Run for Heroes Instagram page now has more than 64,000 followers and more than 800,000 people have participated. It reached its initial fundraising goal in four days.
The combined distance participants have currently traveled is equivalent to a trip to the moon and back and the total raised was £ 5.1 million as of Monday afternoon.
The proceeds have been donated to NHS Charities Together, a group of charities that is raising money for British healthcare workers fighting the virus.
Royal backup
And some celebrities, like British singer Ellie Goulding, have also completed the challenge.
“People are in the same situation; Princess Eugenia did it, for example. So it doesn’t matter if you are royalty or just an ‘average Joe’ person like me, you still want to do your part,” Strong said.
While the goal of the campaign was to raise money for NHS workers, Strong said another positive aspect of Run for Heroes has been listening to people’s stories of how it encouraged and motivated them to run.
“I think it is a very important message, that while we are socially estranged … in these races, it is really very good for our mental health to go out during the running of the bulls,” he said.
