The Farsley Flyers, a running club in West Leeds, took part in their third Comic Relief fundraiser. The ‘Red Nose Day’ was founded in 1985 by popular comedians: Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry – the Telethon has raised well over a billion pounds since it began three decades ago.

 

In the first year the Flyers asked everyone to wear a red nose, adding in a ‘fun running’ themed activity session in a local park, which fittingly is now referred to as the ‘Red Nose Park’ by the local running fraternity. Last year the club upped the stakes and asked everyone to pull on some red glad rags while contributing a couple of quid to the charity bucket.

 

Last night the club switched it up some more with a ‘Comic Relief Fly By’; runners were split up into 5 groups to cater for all abilities, then the groups ran one of 2 routes in opposite directions. Whopping, cheering and high fives rang out as long lines of flashing red merged and crossed around town.  

 

Runner Joanne Ward shared:

It was great to be part of a sea of red looping around the streets of Farsley high 5 big other groups as they passed by. It was funny how a flyer lost her group then managed to make her way back via tagging in each of the other groups.

 

With an abundant number of fundraising campaigns vying for your mileage it isn’t always clear which one is the right one. One of the fundamentals of Comic Relief is the ‘Golden Pound Principle’ where every single donated pound is spent directly on charitable projects and not the oncosts of the organisations coordinating them – these expenses are actually covered by corporate sponsorship!

 

Flyer Claire Battensby commented:

I thought it was great, very well organised and when I was warming up I looked across the car park and it was covered in red people which I thought looked great especially because it was light still. I always think it’s fab to see how so many people from Farsley and surrounding areas come together and donate and wear red for the run, also the high 5s while we run round I love, every single person did it while we ran past, made me feel proud to be part of Flyers.

 

61 Flyers raised a total of £90.84 and the club can be proud that they are contributing to the campaigns aim to…

 

Bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people, which we believe requires investing in work that addresses people’s immediate needs as well as tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice.