One of our goals at What The Fartlek is to support some of the amazing charities that mean so much to our team and our community. We take pride in using our platform to support as many causes as possible through our running shenanigans by raising money and awareness. In addition to this we are always keen to showcase the fundraising exploits of our Fartlek Family and champion their journeys to make a difference!
Since launching the podcast in late 2020 we have raised funds for the following charitable organisations:
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Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice
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Prostate Cancer UK
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Run4YourMind
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Make 2nds Count
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Make A Wish UK
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British Heart Foundation
At the time of writing we have been able to raise over £15,250 for these great causes.
Have a read below to learn more about some of our antics.
Charity of the Year 2024 -
Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice
We are delighted to announce our charity of the year for 2024 is the incredible Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice.
Bluebell Wood provides vital and incredible care to children and families in desperate need for respite and an alternative to hospital care - standing by their side in the final moments of children's lives cut far too short.
Fundraising
We have plenty coming up throughout the year and to kick things off we will be raising money for this great cause at our annual WTF Weekender in Sheffield at the end of May.
If you can spare any donation to this worthy cause and help us achieve our target then please do so via the link below to our Just Giving page.
2023
Rob, Matt and the What The Fartlek podcast crew all joined seasoned fundraiser JP to don the Make-A-Wish®️ UK vest and upped the ante with new fundraising adventures for 2023.
The main event was JPs 4 at 40. 4 races consisting of the Sheffield Half Marathon which was a mini Fartlek Family takeover, London Landmarks Half followed up with Manchester and London marathons 2 weeks in a row!!
Plus we had a MASSIVE raffle with prizes from our awesome partner companies.
In total we raised an incredible £7500. Thanks to everyone that supported us and this great cause.
Make A Wish UK supports children with critical illnesses and their families by granting wishes to bring happiness, positivity and respite into their lives.
A chat with JP
You can hear more details about Make-A-Wish by checking out Series 6 Episode 1 of the podcast that includes a great chat with JP who tells us about all his previous fundraising antics for the charity.
2023 - Weekender fundraiser
In 2023 we were saddened to hear of the passing of Stu Brear. Stu kindly volunteered his time to our previous fundraising efforts by refereeing our football games. We therefore decided to dedicate our 2023 weekender to Stu and raised over £850 for British Heart Foundation in his memory.
We marked the mens and women’s football matches with a minutes applause for Stu and were very happy to have members of his family in attendance. Thank you so much to everyone who donated.
2022
The podcast has always been keen to promote and talk openly about mental health awareness and in 2022 we partnered and raised money for Run4YourMind; a charitable organisation that was set up by a very good friend of the podcast Oly Newton.
Oly is a a long term sufferer of severe OCD, Anxiety and Depression and with Run4YourMind is on a mission to raise awareness, support, motivate, inspire and help others struggling with mental illness to better themselves through the power of running.
The dream is to help as many people as possible and make a real difference.
In total we raised well over £1100, which is fantastic. Thank you to everyone that donated and helped support this great cause.
A chat with Oly
You can hear more details about Run4YourMind by checking out Series 4 Episode 12 of the podcast that includes a very interesting and insightful chat with Oly who tells us all about his journey and starting up the foundation.
Further details
More details about the foundation can be found at the following links:
2021
As part of our goal for the podcast, we wanted to raise money for a charity close to our hearts each year, and in 2021 that was Prostate Cancer UK.
Rob, Matt, Jack and Sammy all ran the Chester Marathon in October. With your support and donations we raised money not just by running the marathon itself, but also through some exciting challenges along the way.
Throughout the year we hosted virtual quiz nights, ice bucket challenges, raffles, one of the Fartlek family Kathy completed a 4x4x48 challenge on our behalf and the lads captained teams in a WTF Cup football match!
In total we raised well over £2300, which is a tremendous achievement. Thank you to everyone that donated and helped us achieve this target.
Fundraising Highlights
So many laughs at the quiz nights with some Fartlek Family!
Sammy inflicted the first ice bucket over Rob. A huge swell of fundraising meant Rob had to endure 17 ice buckets.
Rob made sure that Matt couldn't escape the ice buckets.
Sammy and Donna couldn't get away from the ice buckets either.
Series 3 podcast guest Ben couldn't escape the ice buckets after recording his episode.
Kathy was amazing and ran 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours. She dedicated her fundraising to the podcast cause and helped raise an awesome £100 for charity.