While I’m (Dan – biog below) the bloke that does the running, Run the World wouldn’t happen without the fantastic support of the following people :
- Luke ‘the ever patient travel agent’ Fenn
Luke’s been with me since the beginning and still books all my travel despite the fact that Trailfinders keep promoting him to ever more senior management positions. Luke delights in booking me on overnight flights (in sleepless economy natch) and flights that depart between midnight and 6 a.m.
Joking aside, Luke is continually having to come up with itineraries that no-one has ever done before – on ridiculously low budgets. He deserves to win every Travel Agent of the Year award going.
- Denise ‘Da Bees Knees’ Williams
Denise organises all the runs and everything else that Luke doesn’t organise. She’s also an endless fund of ideas about how we can make Run the World bigger and better. I should tell you that she runs a virtual PA service – but I don’t want her to have any more clients so I won’t mention it.
- Lizzie ‘no nickname – yet’ Maher
Lizzie is my ‘handler’ at Cancer Research UK and will be very cross with me if I don’t hit my fundraising target. So donate. Now!
- Victoria, Andrew and the Arishi Agency
They built this rather excellent Run the World website – for free. What more can I tell you ? You should use them!
Dan’s Biograpghy
After a career in music, video games and the internet, Dan founded Gold Challenge. Gold Challenge launched in late 2010 and ran an Olympic and Paralympic inspired challenge in the run up to London 2012. Gold Challenge partnered with the British Olympic Association/Team GB, Paralympics GB and Sport England and was part of the official London 2012 mass participation legacy programme. Gold Challenge also worked closely with LOCOG and hosted one of the pre-Games test events in the Olympic Stadium.
The challenge was highly successful with over 105,000 participants. More than 200 schools and 100 corporates took part including large employers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Atos, EDF, Cisco, John Lewis and Coca Cola. In excess of £1.5 million was raised for Gold Challenge’s 150 charity partners who included household names such as Cancer Research UK, Oxfam, the NSPCC and Help for Heroes.
In early 2013, Gold Challenge launched the Take12 Challenge, a healthy living challenge funded by the London Legacy Development Corporation (the body responsible for the Olympic Park post the Games).Take12 aimed to inspire people in the Olympic host boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Barking & Dagenham to be more active. Focussed on in-actives, families and young people, over 15,000 people signed up for Take12. The follow-up programme – ‘Take 12 in the Park’ – encouraged people across London to take part in sport and physical activity in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
In 2014, Gold Challenge ran the 2014 Challenge – a free challenge that celebrated the 2014 Commonwealth Games and aimed to motivate people across the world to be more active, raise money for charity and become healthier and fitter.
Gold Challenge also provided the technical platform and participant support for ‘Million Miles Together’ – a healthy living, physical activity and community building programme that ran in the London Borough of Newham between October 2016 and January 2017. Over 660 000 miles of activity were logged in Newham.
In addition to the above, Gold Challenge creates and runs bespoke physical activity, healthy living and fund raising challenges for corporates, public sector employers and charities. Over 160 000 people have taken part in these challenges.
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