#4000MilesToSafety – Challenge Completed!

Challenge completed! We set ourselves a challenge to collectively travel 4000 miles throughout the month of September, all to raise vital funds and awareness for young refugees.

4000 miles is the average distance that the young people we support have travelled to get to the UK. This includes the journeys from Afghanistan (4676 miles), Eritrea (4999 miles), Iran (3410 miles), Syria (2829 miles), and Vietnam (5374 miles). That’s why the theme of this year’s challenge was #4000MilesToSafety.

So, last month, friends and supporters of Hope for the Young got walking, running, swimming and cycling in an effort to help us reach our goal of 4000 miles. And, after an anxious wait whilst we totted up the miles, we are delighted to announce that we collectively travelled 4349.8 miles!

Thanks to over 180 people who donated, we raised a total of £12,406!  This incredible achievement made all the sore feet and early mornings worth it for our fundraisers.

How we did it

50 wonderful people took part in the challenge over the month of September.

From Dan, who ran the London Marathon in aid of Hope for the Young and dedicated his 98(!) training miles to our campaign, to our wonderful Mentoring Coordinator Ellie, who ran 5km every single day, to Lara, who walked and ran an eye-watering 150 miles during September, to Saeed and his wife, who cycled every day and even swam laps on their relaxing holiday to contribute a whopping 109 miles towards our goal!

We also couldn’t have done it without our incredible team of runners who took on The Big Half Marathon at the beginning of September. Not to mention our Sponsored Walkers!

The Sponsored Walk

On 24th September, we held our annual Sponsored Walk on the beautiful Hampstead Heath.

What a day it was! The sun shone down on our walkers and there was a fantastic buzz in the air as 30 members of staff, mentors, friends and family walked a 10-mile route around the Heath.

Along the way, the walkers chatted and got to know each other, taking in the sights such as the Hampstead ponds, the Vale of Health and even a couple of wallabies at the Golders Hill Park Zoo. The day was filled with lots of laughter, snacks, and stories of hope and solidarity with the young people we were there to support.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who walked with us, from our youngest participant aged just 8 months old, to our oldest aged 82!

Where will the money we raised go?

Every penny raised through the 4000-Mile Challenge will go directly towards supporting young refugees to access the education and one-to-one support they need to reach their full potential and build happy, meaningful lives here in the UK. This in action means we will be matching over 150 mentors with young people and supporting at least 30 grantees in the year to come.

To see the real-life impact of this support, you can read Ismail’s story here.

Our Raisely page will remain open until the end of October, so there’s still time to make a last-minute donation and help us support more young people!