Great North Run... 5 days to go!

With 5 days to go until the Great North Run, yesterday was my last run of the very little half marathon 'training' that I have done. 

To be brutally honest, I have hated every minute of training and despite being a reasonably athletic 20 year old, every time I run I feel like an 80 year old woman with arthritis! 

I ran the Great North Run last year and after crossing the finish line and ending up being injured for a month after with patella tendonitis I said that I categorically was never ever doing it again... But, here I am again preparing to stand on the start line a bag of nerves again! 

There is something pretty magical about the Great North Run that has drawn me and so many other people back for another year of 13.1 miles from city to sea! 

I'm not a competitive runner and I am not looking for a good time and will certainly be nowhere near Mo Farah, but I am one of thousands of 'charity' runners who were taken in by the running bug and the ambition to make a difference and raise money for our chosen charities, and there is something super special about that and despite being overtaken by a man dressed in a duck outfit last year I felt an immense sense of pride as I crossed the finish line, along with thousands of 'ordinary' people doing 'extraordinary' things. 

The reason I am running this year, is a young man named Isaac Siame, a peer leader at Fountain of Hope, a centre for street kids, AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Lusaka, Zambia. 

Isaac didn't have a great start to life and spent many years living on the street, affected by physical and drug abuse. As a young teen he found Fountain of Hope and it changed his life for the better, giving him hope, shelter, food and a sense of family. 

He has never left and he now looks after the boys that live there and he coaches football and PE there on a voluntary basis everyday, teaching around HIV/AIDS and other issues through sport and acting as a role model to those children. He is a true inspiration and the most genuine and kind hearted man I have ever come across in my life. 

One thing Isaac missed out on as a child was an education, something that many of us have taken for granted growing up. So my goal is to raise enough money to send Isaac to school and complete his education, which will cost around £600.

I am within touching distance of my target and would like to reach it before Sunday! Any donations will make a huge difference! 

www.justgiving.com/Hannah-Marshall10

I would like to thank everyone that has sponsored me so far and I can assure you that this money will make a huge difference and mean the world to a very special young man. 

Zikomo Kwambiri, thank you very much! 

Mwuli Bwanji! Zambia IDEALS Project

As part of a UK Sport programme called IDEALS (International Development through Excellence and Leadership in Sport) I travelled to Lusaka, Zambia for 6 weeks to coach football, deliver PE lessons and educate around HIV/AIDS awareness. 

Throughout the year I devoted a lot of time to fundraising and training and educating myself for the trip… but nothing could have prepared me for the journey that I embarked on! 

Firstly, culturally it was obviously a huge shock to the system, people shouting “MUZUNGU” at you as you walked down the street, which means ‘white person’! They were also all fascinated by my blonde hair and I’d find people playing with it on buses! On that note, buses were out of this world, more of a people carrier with about 20 people on, with people bringing live chickens on board before they killed them for their tea! The Zambian culture is extremely friendly and vibrant, which I absolutely loved! Constant high fives and little voices saying “Hi, how are you?” everywhere you went!   

On a day to day basis I spent my weeks at Fountain of Hope, the most incredible place in the world. Fountain is a centre for children living on the street, AIDS orphans and vulnerable children and the work they do really blew me away and it showed me at great lengths the impact that sport can have on the world around us. I spent my afternoons coaching U10s football, U12s and U14s football and also helped to set up regular girls’ football sessions, which were amazing! I spent my mornings helping out at the site wherever I could, delivering PE lessons, teaching in classes, reading books to children and I even managed to paint a classroom! On a Tuesday and a Thursday I spent my mornings at UTH Special Needs School, which is without a doubt the happiest place in the world! The children all had varying special needs so we just had lots of fun playing tug of war and singing and dancing and they were over the moon to have ‘muzungu’s come to visit them!  

I absolutely loved the football coaching and it proved that you can drop a football anywhere in the world and it brings people together and is a universal language. 

I also did a considerable amount of work with the outreach programme, going out onto the streets and engaging with the children and encourage them to come to Fountain of Hope away from the dangers they face on the street, such as physical, sexual and drug abuse. This work was incredible, but extremely challenging and exposed me to some stories and experiences that I can only describe as a scene from a horror film. The things that these children go through from such a young age is unbelievable.   

But what is more remarkable is how much Fountain of Hope changes their lives for the better, gives them shelter, food, education, love, a sense of family, empowerment and hope. Street children become confident, intelligent young people. Without Fountain, it’s unimaginable and scary to think where these children would be. Football and sport have definitely defined my life and made me the person that I am today, but sport provides the people of Zambia with so much more. 

Sport is used as an educational tool to teach around health and HIV prevention and also as a tool for empowerment, it helps these children forget the things they have been through and as you can imagine I was blown away so much and reduced to tears several times hearing their incredible stories.   

One character that totally blew me away during my time at Fountain of Hope was a young man called Isaac Siame.

Isaac lived on the street as a child for 8 years and was subjected to some terrible things but found Fountain as a young teenager and hasn’t left ever since. He became a peer leader and began voluntary coaching the football teams and spends every day with the children coaching them, helping them with life skills and counseling them through their experiences and inspiring them to be the best they can be. Isaac is a true role model to all of those children and the most remarkable person I have ever met. For somebody to have the past that he has and to come out of it with the temperament and personality that he has is so inspirational.  Isaac has never completed his education and it would be his dream come true to finish his secondary exams, but he doesn’t have the money to do so.   

Having been inspired by his work at Fountain, I wanted to run the Great North Run (after categorically saying after running it last year that I NEVER wanted to do it again) to try and raise the funds for him to complete his education to help him expand the work he does at Fountain and to give something back to somebody that has totally changed my outlook on life. 

My just giving site is 

https://www.justgiving.com/Hannah-Marshall10 

and I can’t stress enough how much impact sport is having in Zambia and how far the smallest of amounts goes so any support would be incredible!