Oldham school children and the ‘running man’ raise £3500 for charity

Image by Asian Image

The ‘running man’ of Oldham provided help to school children in raising an amount of £3,500 towards Pakistan flood relief efforts recently.

Afruz Miah, who ran from Oldham to London while on a fast during Ramadan, came to be popularly known as the ‘running man’. His daughter studies at St Thomas School, where the kids along with Miah, raised the money through a fundraising run.

Laura Carruthers, a teacher at the Werneth school said, “I run the school council which is comprised of children from each year group.

“Children voted for their class councillor, then as a council we decided on a number of charities we want to raise money for over the year.”

The pupils decided to collect money for food banks, Children in Need and the Pakistan Flood Appeal.

Carruthers added, “The Running Man’s daughter is in year six and we found out about his fundraising campaigns. I contacted him and asked if he could come into the school as an inspirational person.

“I told him that we wanted to do a run and he suggested that he would join the fundraising run.”

During the campaign, students from every single year group completed a lap of the school pitch and participated in a sponsored race.

Carruthers continued, “We raised over £3500. Mr Miah ran with us, which was really great and the children were inspired by him.

“One of the parents started running as well. We were overwhelmed by the amount of money we raised from generous parents.

 “We have never raised such a large sum in any of our campaigns. There are prizes for the children, Mr Miah has ordered some tablets, and medals for the children.

“The whole school was involved apart from nursery class. We have just over four hundred pupils who attend our school.

“The money raised will go to Global Relief Trust (GRT) as Mr Miah works with that charity. They will provide photos and videos of how the money is spent. We will talk about it with the children and parents. We have one child in year six who raised £400 on her own.

“We want all the children to understand that they are very fortunate and to learn about the deprivation of people around the world.

“A lot of our families are from a Pakistani heritage so the flood appeal is close to home for them.

“Our students are from a mixture of backgrounds including Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Romanian and African. The community is about 90 percent South Asian.

“In the future we will donate to three other charities that the children have chosen. We hope to work with Mr Miah again as he has offered to help us in any way possible.

“We also want to bring in Akky Rahman, the first Bangladeshi to climb Mt Everest.

“We are really proud of our children who have spearheaded the campaign. I helped with their ideas and organisation but fundamentally this effort came from them. It was they who raised this money.”

Miah expressed his interest in motivating more children to participate in events like this. He said,“Hopefully this will inspire and motivate them, I hope the children realise that if I could do it, then they will be able to do the same and more.

“I am happy to go into schools and colleges as long as it helps to promote physical and mental well-being.”