Jingle all the way: CAFOD’s fun runners bring in a Christmas gift
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Craig: "Nothing says ‘Nativity’ quite like Baby Cheeses! Last year, we came as Gold, Frankenstein and Olly Murs, so we had to top that."
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Alex and Alice: "We thought it was a bit of fun and a bit Christmassy – who doesn’t love dressing up?"
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Claudia: "I feel aquatic. You can wiggle your tail to go faster. The loaves are better runners, but we’ll support each other."
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Jen and Hannah: "We got the costumes specially for this race, but we’ll get good use out of them over Christmastime!"
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Larinda and Russell: "That atmosphere has been lovely. It’s beautiful conditions. We’ve raised about £80 - we only signed up last week!"
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At the starting line
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Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without reindeer antlers...
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Santa and his reindeers
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Veronique (Angel) and Joanna (Shepherd): "We like doing something festive and good fun."
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Teachers and students from Maria Fidelis School: "It was better than just donating money. You’ve actually been part of something."
A big thank you to all our fancy dressed fun runners who took part in the CAFOD Nativity Run on Saturday. You raised more than £3,500 for CAFOD!
Around 120 of you took part in the 5k run on London’s Clapham Common. Runners aged 5 to 64 – dressed as shepherds, angels, sheep, Father Christmas and his reindeer, elves, penguins, wise men and even cheese – turned out for the run on a bright winter morning.
29-year-old Chris Ore from Stockwell was the first to cross the line in just over 19 minutes.
Two teachers and a group of students from Maria Fidelis School, Phoenix Road, Euston, set out to raise £400. They had a cake sale beforehand that raised £85 and have been sponsored by friends and family. One of the girls has raised £94 by herself. They said: “We wanted to help and it was better than just donating money. You’re doing something and you’ve actually been part of something.”
Larinda Poole, originally from Melbourne, Australia, and Russell Webb from London expect to raise about £80 for CAFOD. Larinda said: “The atmosphere has been lovely. It’s beautiful conditions for sports.” And Russell added: “I’m a Catholic and my mum has always supported CAFOD, so she was pleased we’re doing it for such a good cause.”
Charlotte Vowden and Gemma McNeil-Walsh, who both work for the Sunday Times, signed up last minute online. Gemma said: “We like running anyway and were looking to do something before Christmas, and because it’s fancy dress we just thought it would be fun, and we wouldn’t have to try too hard. It was really good – really relaxed.
Charlotte added: “Events like this give a better profile to the charity. You’ve got kids and families in the park seeing us dressing up and they might come over and wonder why. They’ll see that CAFOD’s raising money for a good cause but not taking itself too seriously.”
Participants in the fun run are encouraged to dress up as a character from the Christmas story, such as a shepherd, an angel, a wise man, or another character associated with Christmas, to have fun and raise money for poor people around the world.
Organiser Hannah Patterson said: “It was a lovely day and great to see so many people enjoying themselves and making a difference at the same time. People have so much on their minds at this time of year, it’s a delight to see that they could still be thinking of others and that they got the chance to take part in such a joyful activity.”
A huge thank you to everyone who got involved. See you next year!
