Run for victory

Two teams of CWU runners pounded the streets of London on Wednesday evening in aid of homeless charity Crisis.

The Crisis Square Mile Run is a 12 kilometre course involving the teams running a rely of three kilometres each, starting outside the iconic Tate Modern gallery on London's South Bank. There were a few nerves on the start line, but the sun shone and runners were cheered on to raise funds for a worthy cause.

"It's the first time we've done anything like this and it's been a real success" explained national youth officerSimon Sapper, who recorded his lap of the course via a handy head-cam (pictured).

"I hope we'll consider entering even more teams next year because it's a great event to get people involved in and all for a fantastic charity too," he said.

CWU Youth has nominated Crisis as their designated charity and will pressing for Young Labour to make the issue of homelessness a priority at the Young Labour conference in Newcastle 23^rd and 24^th June.

First-time runner Flo from Kent, a CWU member in BT, said: "It was quite daunting but so much fun. I'm really glad I took part and got round the course - I had to keep going because Lee had a train to catch and was running after me so that was a good incentive!"

Youth committee member Adam, who works for Royal Mail in Leicester, said: "This is such a great event, we should definitely do it again, although I might be too old to run for the Youth team next year."

It's not too late to sponsor the teams if you want to add your support to this fundraising effort. CWU fundraising so far is set to exceed £2,000. To check the current total or to donate visit the Virgin Money Giving page.

The CWU Youth team (in order of runners) was: Kye Dudd from Bristol, Flo Williams-Fowler from Kent, Lee Fishwick from Manchester, and Adam Alarakhia from Leicester, while the CWU HQ team consisted of head of research Natalie Jacottet, web editor Nikki Chapple, press officer Sian Jones and national officer Simon Sapper. It wasn't a race, but for the record the HQ team beat the Youth team's time, coming in just under an hour compared to the Youth team's hour and a bit.