Leeds firefighter and friends to run 2,800 miles for victims of devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake

The two nations were devastated by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, which was followed by another earthquake of similar magnitude in Turkey two weeks later. More than 51,000 people have since died in these disasters and many more have sustained injuries.

Hassan Abrar, 32, and his friends Azam, Omar and Naheem wanted to come together to raise money for the people affected by these earthquakes. They aim to cover the distance of Leeds to Aleppo (approximately 2,836 miles) over 83 days and will run the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon on May 14 to complete the challenge.

The friends have run many of these days during the month of Ramadan and kept their fasts while running. Hassan, a firefighter, said: “I think it's just trying to make it more difficult for ourselves, trying to make it harder, just to make it more of a challenge. Obviously the month of Ramadan. It's a month of giving as well so a lot of Muslims will give to charity during that month.

"It's quite easy to do something that you might already be good at. I decided to push myself and tell myself I'm doing something different. The more you do something, the better you get it.”

Hassan described his younger self as “not much of a runner”, but has spent much of the past few years completing running challenges to raise money for many different causes alongside his friends. They ran seven miles every day for a week to raise money for the and Rob Burrow and they even completed 10k everyday during Ramadan for Palestine.

So far, £6,458 of the £10,000 aim has been raised on their fundraising page. Hassan said: “I'm just kind of seeing the support that we've got from people around the city donations wise. Knowing that we're gonna hand over this kind of aid and we'll be able to help – that's the reason why we do it. It’s not to get recognition ourselves.”