The One Show’s Michelle Ackerley races to support success of Southport volunteers and runners
20th September 2017
Southport’s parkrun pip competitors to the post to win prestigious award
The One Show Presenter Michelle Ackerley paid a visit today to Southport to celebrate a well-deserved win for parkrun UK. They have been voted Best Sports project by public vote in the National Lottery Awards; the annual search to find the nation’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.
parkrun's Visually Impaired (VI) Scheme is a free 5-km run held in parks across the country, providing an environment for visually impaired people to run safely and to socialise. Southport’s volunteers have been the most successful in the UK at helping visually impaired people get active.
Michelle Ackerley said: “Parkrun are passionate about increasing the number of active visually impaired runners in the UK. National Lottery funding has helped the programme continue and supported the wonderful dedicated volunteers who help people go running in their community regularly, safely and for fun. I am thrilled to present this award to them today.”
An influential Southport volunteer is Dr Simon Tobin who has been instrumental in embedding guided runs and has been an engaging speaker at events.
He said: “There are around 1.5 million visually impaired people in the UK, less than 10% of them are regularly active. It is so important to support and encourage visually impaired runners to connect with the community and keep healthy. National Lottery funding has also helped parkrun to host taster days to introduce new visually impaired runners to the parkrun family”
Mike Diaper, Executive Director at Sport England which awarded the National Lottery funding to parkrun, said: “Sport England’s research shows that visually impaired people are the least likely disability group to be active. This is a really imaginative way of changing that and enabling visually impaired people to become more active, both as runners and as volunteers.”
So far, over 150 people with a visual impairment have started running, walking or volunteering at events. It's not just about the runners. Parkrun's VI scheme also focuses on encouraging more people to become volunteers who act as guides for visually impaired runners.
The winners of the seven National Lottery Awards categories will get a £5,000 prize, an iconic National Lottery Awards trophy and attend a star-studded Awards ceremony in London- broadcast on BBC One in September.
Ends
*IMAGE ATTACHED : MICHELLE ACKERLEY AND THE PARKRUN TEAM
For further information please contact The National Lottery Awards:
Jay Epega on 07505 045 221 or jay.epega@LotteryGoodCauses.org.uk
Nodiadau i olygyddion
• Parkrun received £11,250 of National Lottery funding through Sport England.
About Sport England
Sport England is a public body and invests more than £300 million National Lottery and government money each year in projects and programmes that help people get active and play sport.
It wants everyone in England, regardless of age, background, or level of ability, to feel able to engage in sport and physical activity. That’s why a lot of its work is specifically focused on helping people who do no, or very little, physical activity and groups who are typically less active - like women, disabled people and people on lower incomes.