Ha’way the lads and lasses: 60,000 are expected to start Sunday’s Great North Run, including many running for NHS charities
Sunday’s Great North Run, Britain’s biggest road running event, will include 600 runners taking part to raise funds for NHS charities. One of them will be Coulsdon’s Antony Tiernan.
Funds raised during the half-marathon will provide vital support to the NHS, whether that’s transforming green spaces outside hospitals into therapeutic environments, providing VR technology to help staff training, or well-being zones for staff coming off busy shifts or to benefit patients, staff and communities.
NHS Charities Together, the national charity caring for the NHS, hopes to raise £30,000 this year from its runners – part of a 60,000-strong field setting off from Newcastle on Sunday morning on their 13.1-mile trek to South Shields.
Getting the miles in: Antony Tiernan has been training for the GNR around his home in Coulsdon
NHS Charities Together has been involved in the Great North Run for the past three years, but with a much bigger presence at the event this year, the charity hopes to treble the average amount raised in previous years.
For the first time this year, NHS Charities Together has formed a collective with 18 NHS charities from across the country, particularly in the north of England.
“Working collaboratively with both larger and smaller charities within our NHS charity network helps us make sure all our 600 runners have an excellent experience and are motivated to get involved and raise vital funds,” a charity spokesperson said.
Antony Tiernan is 51 and lives in Coulsdon. He has worked in the NHS for more than 20 years and is a trustee of NHS Charities Together. He said: “My brother, Mark, had cancer as a child and received amazing care from the NHS. He is now in his 50s with two children.
“For two decades I’ve worked alongside thousands of NHS staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to do their best for patients and their families – from the midwives who help bring us into the world, paramedics who run towards danger and porters who keep our hospitals moving.
“On Sunday, I’ll be running the Great North Run to say thanks to them all and to raise funds to support the amazing work of NHS Charities Together.”
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