Chef de partie

- 20th January 2022

The Manchester 24 Hour Run raises over £70,000 for the region’s homeless community

Danny Jones The Manchester 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness 2025 fundraising total

The numbers are in for the 2025 Manchester 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness, which saw hordes of runners take over the city centre to generate money for the ever-crucial cause.

Having set an ambitious target of £50,000, not only did they manage to achieve their goal, they absolutely SMASHED it, totalling more than £70k.

In fact, with last-minute donations and matching contributions still trickling in over a fortnight on from this year’s event, the final figure is actually set to surpass that by several thousands.

Simply incredible stuff. Speaking on the night, here’s what the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, had to say about another inspiring edition of the annual endurance relay.

Running in the wind and rain, dashing through puddles in the cold, the pitch black and all through the night into the fresh cold Manc morning this month, more than a thousand volunteers, locals, businesses, and more laced up their trainers for the seventh edition in six years.

For those unaware, this event is a recurring 5k relay loop around Manchester, with the route designed to run around parts of the city centre where you can witness homelessness first-hand.

Taking place in November every year – when the region is even more dark, grey and wet than usual – this also gives participants an opportunity to further empathise with the discomfort felt by rough sleepers.

Well over 4,000 individuals and 165 organisations have taken part in this initiative since 2019, funding more than 70,000 nights of accommodation through the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity and its ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme. That tally is set to jump massively, once again, after this year’s run.

Here’s how the 2025 stats on the tarmac break down:

100 running clubs and organisations
Over 1,500 individual runners and walkers
44 x five-kilometre consecutive relay laps run
Over £188,700* raised across all events and years.
Multiple sponsors, including Autotrader, Accenture and Mistral

the mcr 24 hour run against homelessness fundraiser — Credit: Ed Hill (supplied)

In 2025, the 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness also successfully expanded to Sheffield and Hereford for the first time, as well as returning to Birmingham for its second year.

The event unites local running communities to support local organisations. Better still, in 2026, the event is expected to expand again; for instance, after a rescheduling, the event is heading over to Yorkshire once more for the inaugural edition of The Leeds 24 Hour Run in March 2026.

Reflecting on the event’s seventh year, The 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness co-founder, Thomas Lewis, says: “Every year I think we’ve hit our peak in terms of fundraising and turnout, and every year we somehow manage to surpass it. I’m completely blown away by the support and dedication of the Manchester running community. Bring on next year.”

Fran Darlington-Pollock, the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity’s outgoing CEO, added: “We’re so proud to continue supporting this incredible event and all the hard work that goes into making it such a success year after year.

“The passion and dedication of the organisers, runners, and supporters are truly inspiring, and we’re so grateful for the funds raised, which help people experiencing homelessness through A Bed Every Night.”

Anyone still wanting to make a donation can do so by visiting The 24 Hour Run website and the attached JustGiving page HERE, which will remain open for a few weeks following the event.

There are plenty of other ways we can help fight homelessness throughout the year, and it’s by pursuing vital causes like this that we truly put the great in Greater Manchester.

Manchester Christmas Markets visitors can now donate glass deposit to local charity instead of reclaiming it

You can even do so by simply visiting the Christmas markets.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group/The 24 Hour Run/North Sheen Photography (supplied)

Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to | November 2025

Danny Jones

Well, well, well – it’s nearly the end of the year, and we’re on to our second-to-last round of local music artists based in and around Greater Manchester that are getting us excited for this year.

2025 has been ‘the year’ of many bands, some of whom are still well and truly riding the wave of popularity from the previous calendar, to be honest. But it’s also been unreal for new releases and ones to watch.

Never more so than here in our region, as we Mancunians – whether through birth, relocation or eventual adoption (if you love this place, it’ll love you back) – remain the most prolific musical hub in the UK, perhaps on the planet.

Squirm at our sincerity/perceived hyperbole all you want; we mean it, and we have five more artist suggestions for you to prove it. Let’s get stuck in.

Greater Manchester music you need to check out

1. TTSSFU

We’re kicking things off in Wigan this month: the first of our monthly artist picks is the curiously named TTSSFU, which is the stage name of 21-year-old native, Tasmin Stephens. The guitarist for fellow local band, Duvet, this new project has quickly caught our attention for all the right reasons.

It’s been labelled as DIY shoegaze, and while we don’t disagree with the description one bit – even the fairly melancholic, introspective, longing, ‘tragic youth’ content of the lyrics sort of fit that mould – but it doesn’t quite do the heavily textured sonics and techniques justice.

While singles like ‘Forever’ feel more like a familiar indie-girl alt-pop track (it actually made us think of Hazel English meets Soccer Mommy, specifically), that’s one note in the wide wall of sound she builds in her recent release, Blown. We’d suggest ‘Call U Back’ and ‘Being Young’ as stops two and three.

@ttssfu Forever behind the scenes out now !!!! #newmusic #friends #shoegaze #dreampop #shoegaze ♬ original sound – Tasmin

2. Pins

Now, if it’s more of those shoegazey influences that you want, Pins have been going at it since 2011 and arguably feel a little less abstract/more subtle in their approach, but they still deserve way more credit for the nevertheless impressive and experimental work they’ve been doing in the genre for over a decade.

Hot Slick, which dropped during the pandemic, was their most electronic and quite literally digital outing to date, and while admittedly not our favourite, it did show they had plenty of room and keenness to push in different directions, and it looks like it could be paying off at the start of this next chapter.

They returned this past September with their newest single, ‘I’ll Be Yours’, and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed diving back into their world and seeing what else they have in their locker. That mini-marching drum on its own has gotten stuck in our heads, but we still love listening to ‘LUVU4LYF’ and their tune with the one and only Iggy Pop. Yes, really…

It's been a while since I've frequented @bodeganotts well worth it to see the return of @WeArePins pic.twitter.com/B2wAzYSyYb
— Robinson (@Peeter166) September 22, 2025

3. Proud Mary

There’s always something fascinating about musicians who’ve actually been around for donkey’s years but have never made little more than a relatively small catalogue, especially when they’re this good. Proud Mary should tell you everything you need to know from their name alone, but it comes in spades.

A Manchester-born blues and folk rock band formed in 1998, we’ll confess we never stray too far from their self-titled debut – which is now approaching its 25th anniversary and is delightful from start to finish – but there is still a very rich albeit short discography to be enjoyed here.

If you’re just looking for the most well-known tracks, you can’t go wrong with ‘Very Best Friend’, but we also like a couple from their last album, Songs From Catalina, like ‘Space and Places’, and ‘Hats Off’ could trick anyone into thinking it was classic bluegrass straight from Kentucky – only it’s Manc.

Never gets old this one.

4. pyncher

Our penultimate pick for November’s artists of the month is the promising alternative quartet, pyncher. We’d heard smatterings of them throughout this year, but having finally now sat with their debut album, Every Town Needs A Stranger, we’ve fallen headlong into a full-on love affair.

Starting out as another underground post-punk outfit looking to make their mark in an increasingly saturated sect of the current British alt-rock scene, it’s their punchy, straightforward but satisfyingly jangly, irreverent style that not only puts us in mind of contemporaries like Seb Lowe, but has totally won us over.

The swagger feels VERY rock and roll, the vocal delivery almost feels like it takes the piss out of polished singing, and as for recommendations, ‘Back to the Country’ is the perfect introduction to their sound; ‘Dirty Feet’ almost starts like an alternative guitar-driven skat and feels very post-modern, and ‘Steely Dan’ might be our most replayed song of the last few weeks full stop.

5. Still Blank

Lastly, we’re pleased to report that the Spotify algorithm properly did its job this time by suggesting not only related groups/similar-sounding acts on the artist’s radio, but actually giving us one that we became so quickly enamoured with that we dove right down deep into the rabbit hole.

We’re talking about Still Blank, whose unique blend of laid-back yet soulful vocals, layered guitars and pedals, with drowny ambience, nods to everything from The Durutti Column and Radiohead – ‘Arpeggi’, specifically – to early New Order and more, it’s a dreamy, synth-soaked mix we can’t get enough of.

Set up by multi-talented Jordy from Hawaii and guitarist Ben, who’s from right here in 0161, we could genuinely and wholeheartedly recommend every song on their debut record for a different reason. The more we listen to it, the more we struggle to land on any real semblance of our favourites; it’s nigh on impossible because.

Along with pyncher, this might be one of the most perfect debuts we’ve had the good fortune of coming across in god knows how long. For once, we’ll save you the lengthy, verbose descriptions – just listen to it and prepare to have little else in your ears for the foreseeable.

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A post shared by @stilllblank

We hope you enjoyed this latest round-up of Greater Manchester music, both new and old, and you can rest assured we’ll be back again for one final edition for 2025 at the same time next month.

And, as always, please do give us your own suggestions in the comments, as we’re always on the lookout for exciting talents worthy of making the monthly Audio North list.

You can see who we picked out last month down below.