01/11/22

Lucy Thornton-Reid, Fundraising Officer

On Sunday 2^nd October 2022 Amy and Anne ran the TCS London Marathon for Nene Park Trust.

We gained two charity places for the Marathon early in 2022 and put a call out on social media asking people to take part and raise funds for the Trust. We were thrilled that Amy and Anne put themselves forward and took on the challenge with such enthusiasm.

This type of fundraising is called community fundraising – where members of the community volunteer to raise funds for a charity, usually associated with an event, challenge or competition.

Community fundraising is a really important part of fundraising for Nene Park Trust. Not only does this provide crucial funds to support our work, but it also helps to raise the profile of the charity within the community and give individuals the chance to make a real difference to a Park they love.

Amy and Anne had a target of raising £1,500 each -  a total of £3,000 - quite a challenge in itself! It has been amazing to see how they have got creative, hosting raffles, art workshops and social media fundraisers to result in not only hitting the target, but exceeding it. Donations are still coming in and the pair have just gone over the £3,000! Absolutely amazing!

It is not too late to donate to Amy and Anne on the appeal on our website, which will remain open until the end of November 2022.

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We caught up with Amy and Anne after they completed the marathon to find out more…

Huge congratulations in this amazing achievement. Sum up your experience of running the marathon in 3 words:

Amy: Inspiring, Uplifting and Hard.

Anne: Tough, Exhilarating and Amazing.

What was your favourite part of the marathon?

Amy: The crowds were amazing and obviously coming over Tower Bridge was quite a big moment in the marathon.

Anne: I think the camaraderie amongst the other runners and the wheelchairs. 

When training for the 26.2miles what was your favourite route?

Amy: For me, living locally to the Park (Ferry Meadows), I quite like coming through Hampton, over into Orton Mere and along and round Ferry Meadows.

Anne: I agree. I like an off road run. There are plenty of those round Ferry Meadows that I enjoyed.

Would you ever do a marathon again?

Amy: Yes I would. If you had asked me that on Sunday, I would have said ‘definitely not’, but yeah I definitely want to have another go, to see if I can beat my time, definitely.

Anne: I had a really good time on Sunday, so I have actually already signed up to the ballet for April 2023 (laughs).

You raised over £3,000 between you - incredible! How did you find the fundraising?

Amy: Initially I was quite daunted by the amount and I wasn’t quite sure where to even start. But once you got the ball rolling it was fine. I did an online raffle through my Instagram and that was really popular so that went well. It was ok in the end!

Anne: I think I agree, yes really hard to get started. I was really lucky that I had some friends that helped out with a few events which was brilliant. We had a great event in our local pub that went really really well and one of my friends kindly donated a fantastic raffle prize which, is still going on at the moment. I am running that online and it is going really well and loads of money is still coming in which is fantastic.

Do you have any tips for anyone thinking about raising funds for Nene Park Trust?

Anne: I would say, encourage all your friends and family to help you out. Don’t take it all on your own shoulders as they will definitely support you. If you can find people who can donate either their services or a raffle prize that's definitely the way to go.

Amy: Yeah, I think for me, making sure you share your fundraising page and sharing your events as much as you can through social media really worked for me.

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If you would like to get involved and raise money for Nene Park Trust, more information can be found here: https://www.nenepark.org.uk/fundraise or feel free to get in touch with the fundraising team to discuss ideas: [email protected]