Runner set to cover 62 miles of his own street in 24 hours to raise food bank funds

On Friday at noon, Oly Newton, will step out into Eden Crescent at Headingley to begin his, literally beyond marathon, challenge in aid of The Trussell Trust which operates foodbanks across the country - including two in Leeds.

It was his neighbours that inspired the nature of the challenge which has also provided a focus for the long-distance runner, who uses excercise as a coping mechanism for the OCD anxiety and depression that he has suffered with for ten years, during the coronavirus lockdown.

He started running in 2017, started the Run4YourMind blog and social media accounts and has overcome his fears to turn to public speaking in the hope that he can help others struggling with mental health problems.

Mr Newton was entered for the London Marathon, which would have taken place a fortnight ago before being cancelled due to the pandemic, and ran the distance anyway to help with his mental health and was cheered back up his street by his neighbours.

He said: "When I did my final lap of that everyone came out to support me and were clapping me to finish. I just thought it gives people something to focus on, even if it is just for 24 hours, it is nice to have that.

"People have been setting little challenges like 10ks in the crescent and I feel like I am mot struggling on my own but with lots of other people."

The Trussell Trust has 1,200 food bank centres across the UK with one serving Leeds North and West and Leeds South East. The Leeds North West branch handed out 11,710 food parcels between April 2018 and March 2019 while the South East branch distributed 12,550 food parcels last year.

Mr Newton added: "I could have done this for a mental health charity but thought that maybe gets lost with everything that is going on and with the amount of people I have heard about struggling to source food, I wanted to so something more relative.

"Even if I raise a couple of thousands of pounds, that is a couple of thousand meals."

Support Oly's cause via www.gofundme.com/f/around-the-block-in-100-ks

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