Homelessness remains one of the biggest problems facing the UK and hundreds of Manchester runners are once again turning up to do their bit to tackle the issue.
The Manchester 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness is an annual initiative that aims to raise money for the Greater Manchester Mayor’s ‘A Bed Every Night’ charity scheme.
Set up by the Run Wild MCR in 2019 – a running club and social society founded by students from the University of Manchester – the 24-hour marathon sees hordes of elite runners, casual joggers and newbies alike run around the city centre to fundraise.
Now in its fourth year, Run Wild‘s 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness is set to be bigger than ever, with an aim to raise more than £5,000 in 2022. That being said, we expect these wonderful lot to rack up much more than that, having totalled £12,000 in donations since the campaign was created.
How does it work?
The event is essentially a 24-hour group relay run where participants can join in for a 5k lap by simply turning up at the venue and joining the giant group of joggers.
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The relay itself is led by one of several run leaders flying a flag for the charity and to help identify the group which can fluctuate in size throughout the day.
Big or small and come rain or shine, people keep going to do their bit to raise money and awareness for this crucial cause.
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Credit: 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness
For anyone worrying about keeping up with the pace and/or distance, the relay is run at an accessible pace which still allows everyone to stay together for a social run and you take part for as long or as little as you like.
Relay groups tend to set off roughly every half an hour; this obviously varies depending on the overall pace of the runners but, once again, it’s not about the running itself: it’s about raising money and awareness for an issue often overlooked in this city.
Who’s taking part and how you can join
Given the charity run’s uni roots, there will of course be plenty of students joining in the relay, with the UoM Sport pledging dozens of runners and athletes to join the cause.
However, you don’t even need to be a regular runner to join in and there will be run leads, pacers and general ambassadors on-hand throughout for anyone that wants to get involved.
For those who can’t make it to the event, the organisers have even set up a virtual participation option, where people can sync their Strava app or enter distances manually to a virtual tracker accessible via the website.
An epidemic that cannot continue to be ignored
There are still an alarming number of homeless people living in Manchester in 2022: approximately 6,780 adults and children are said to be without a permanent domicile in the region, according to statistics from SocialHousing.co.uk.
Also, due to the current cost of living and energy crisis, there is an increased need to offer support this winter. Homeless charity Crisis UK estimates that one in four privately rented households were living in fuel poverty in 2020 and that figure is projected to jump by a staggering 42% by the end of the year.
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In other words, the equivalent of more than 2.3 million households could struggle to pay their gas and electricity bills this winter and, therefore, even more individuals are at risk of becoming homeless.
That’s where charitable drives like this come in. Over £2,000 has been raised through donations already and more than £300 raised in shirt sales alone.
As Lucy from Ancoats Run Club said: “we do spend a lot of time running through the city centre, especially during the winter evenings. We can see the homelessness that affects Manchester. Being able to take part in this run is a great chance for us as a club to help raise”
A Bed Every Night is putting a dint in the problem
While this is obviously a national problem, A Bed Every Night (ABEN) is already supporting over 600 people currently needing a place to stay in Manchester.
Over 4,000 people have been supported by ABEN since 2019; at the time of writing, there are 619 people by associated accommodation in Greater Manchester, with 21 different organisations helping to provide a safe place to sleep across the region.
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Better still, A Bed Every Night also includes specialist women’s, LGBTQ+, pet-friendly and ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ accommodation. The Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity is truly a lifeline for this city’s homeless population and has already helped reduce figures by more than 50%.
Moreover, as MRR chairman and founding member Chris Rider said of his club, one of their main aspirations is to have an impact in the community through acts such as fundraising and “the 24 Hour Run is a fantastic event raising much-needed funds for an important charity.”
The 24-hour marathon will be running 12 noon on Wednesday 16 November until 12pm the following day, with the laps starting from the 53two theatre and arts charity centre, located at Arch 19 on Watson Street.
Sign-up is completely free but not absolutely essential, you can also just rock up if you fancy doing your bit for charity on the day. You can also do as many or as few laps as you like — no matter how many you manage, it’s all going towards an important cause.
You can donate to the 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness 2022HERE and be sure sure to follow them on their various socials for any and all updates on the day.
Featured Image — 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness/Run Wild Manchester
News
Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data
Danny Jones
The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.
It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.
This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.
At the end of the day, tea is has got to be the most important of all the office supplies, surely?
According to the stats, Yokrshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)
Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.
With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.
The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.
In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:
Rank
Tea
Average UK monthly searches
1
Yorkshire Tea
27,100
2
PG Tips
18,100
3
Pukka Tea
14,800
4
Twinings
12,100
5
Teapigs
8,100
6
Whittards Tea
6,600
7
Tetley
4,400
8
Clipper Tea
4,400
9
Lipton Tea
3,600
10
Barrys Tea
3,600
11
Thompsons Tea
1,300
12
Typhoo
1,300
13
Taylors Tea
1,300
14
M&S Tea
1,300
15
Tesco Tea
1,000
16
Tick Tock Tea
880
17
Sainsbury’s Tea
720
18
Lyons Tea
720
19
Asda Tea
590
20
Aldi Tea
590
21
Waitrose Tea
590
22
Lidl Tea
480
23
Morrisons Tea
320
24
Bewleys Tea
90
25
Cafedirect Tea
40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?
While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?
As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencers teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.
Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.
“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…
Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)
News
Manchester palaeontologist unearths bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile
Emily Sergeant
A Manchester-based palaeontologist has unearthed the bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile.
This new identification is a crucial part of a fascinating eight-year long discovery journey.
It all started when a seasoned fossil collector named Paul de la Salle found a giant jawbone on Lilstock Beach, near Bridgewater in Somerset, back in May 2016, and then father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Devon, found the first pieces of a second jawbone and another giant bone while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, also in Somerset, in May 2020.
And now, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester (UoM) Dr Dean Lomax, has identified the fossilised remains of the second gigantic jawbone that measures more than two metres long.
Experts have identified these bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur – which is a type of prehistoric marine reptile – and astonishing estimations suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25-metres long.
Dr Lomax has been working together with Justin and Ruby Reynolds, along with Paul de la Salle and several family members, since the father-daughter duo first contacted them about their groundbreaking discovery in 2020.
A Manchester palaeontologist has unearthed bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile / Credit: UoM
“I was amazed by Justin and Ruby’s find,” Dr Lomax commented.
“In 2018, my team and Paul de la Salle studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone, and we had hoped that one day another would come to light.”
He explained that Justin and Ruby’s new specimen was “more complete and better preserved” than the first find, and that he “became very excited” at the chance to learn more following their discovery.
As mentioned, the Manchester-based research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would’ve been about the size of a blue whale, and they have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis – which means ‘giant fish lizard of the Severn’.
The bones – which represent the very last of their kind – are around 202 million years old, and date back to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian.
During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land.
The University of Manchester, where Dr Dean Lomax works as a palaeontologist / Credit: UoM
Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but the discoveries by Paul, and Justin and Ruby, are said to be “unique among those known to science”, as they appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives – including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia in Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet in China.
Speaking on the confirmation of the bones’ identification this week, Dr Lomax said: “This research has been ongoing for almost eight years.
“It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period.