On Sunday 23 August members of the Maidstone Malayalee Association (MMA) organised a charity fun run to support the ‘Go the Distance’ fundraising campaign which aims to raise money for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Charitable Fund.

50 members of the MMA joined forces and ran a distance of 5K throughout the day – starting and finishing at Barming Heath Park and playground. To date, the team has raised £3,125 – smashing their original fundraising target of £1,000 – a fantastic achievement!

Many of the Association’s members work at Maidstone Hospital and were inspired to host the challenge after watching The Trust’s CEO, Miles Scott, take on his marathon fundraiser. Last month Miles completed a marathon between the Trust’s sites – running a total distance of 28.75 miles in under 4 hours!

The ‘Go the Distance’ fundraising campaign was launched in June 2020, backed by Dame Kelly Holmes,  and has seen hundreds of people walking, running or cycling either 5km, 10km, a half marathon or full marathon in a maximum of 30 days in return for sponsorship. All donations received will support the charity’s dedicated Covid-19 response fund for staff health and wellbeing. To date, the campaign has raised over £10,000 for MTW’s Charitable fund.

Praveen Ramakrishnan, Youth and Sports coordinator at the MMA and lead organiser of the event, commented: “We had a great turnout for the run and the event was a fantastic success! We are so pleased to be able to support our local NHS Trust, especially as many of our members work at Maidstone Hospital – we wanted to do our bit to support the staff at this challenging time”.

Laura Kennedy, Fundraising Manager at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, added: “We are hugely grateful to the Maidstone Malayalee Association for supporting our Go the Distance fundraising campaign.

“All money raised by this campaign will be used to support the health and wellbeing of the staff at our hospitals, who are working so hard during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Anyone wishing to support the fundraiser can donate using this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/maidstonemalayaleeassociation