Meet the Fundraiser: 5 minutes with Rachel

Meet Rachel, a wonderful woman who has been working in the refugee and charitable space for over 12 years. Originally from Birmingham, Rachel has lived in Manchester for the last decade, bringing her knowledge, compassion and support to our diverse communities across the region.

Later this month, Rachel will be running the London Marathon on behalf of WAST and Macmillan Cancer Support.

We met with Rachel to find out why she’s running for WAST and why our cause is so important to her.

Hi Rachel, thanks so much for running for WAST! Can you tell us why this cause matters so much to you?

Absolutely! I’ve not worked or volunteered with WAST, but I’ve known about your work since I first moved to Manchester.

I did a Masters on conflict and peace building, but focused on migration and started to better understand what was happening in Manchester. WAST was always the organisation I heard about in terms of your understanding and trust, the values that you hold with communities, and how the work is led from there – by people who are experiencing extreme hardships and difficulties. I like that it's led by, and with, the women you support.

Exactly, women and our members will always be at the forefront of what we do. Can you tell us how much you’ve raised so far?

At the moment it's just over £1100. That will be split between two charities that mean a lot to me: WAST, for the work you do in centring women’s voices and experiences, and Macmillan Cancer Support who have done a lot for loved ones in my family.

That’s brilliant! Well done. And how about your training journey. How is that going?

This is my first time participating in a race of this length. 10 years back, I did a half-marathon and that feels like a lifetime ago! Now, a lot has changed and I don't feel as fit as I did back then, so I’m trying to throw myself into training and just to make sure I can make it to the end! I don’t need to run the fastest or the most impressive, I just want to be able to finish.

I thought it would be amazing in my life to complete a marathon, so once I got that spot it was very clear to me that I wanted to use the opportunity to fundraise.

Is there anything you’re most looking forward to on marathon day?

As it’s the London Marathon, I’m looking forward to seeing London in a different light, and probably seeing more of London than I've ever seen before.

Also – soaking up the atmosphere! Friends that have taken part before have told me that people shout your name and you feel that kind of thrill, love and appreciation from crowds. I'm sure I'll get emotional throughout the run.

What motivates you to keep going?

Often when I'm training, I'm thinking about the experiences of people that have had to go through a lot, and how they've kept going forwards, kept pushing themselves. That's something that's helped me as I've added more distance to my runs each time and tried to get to the end, so I’m sure on the day I will be thinking of those people again.

That’s really powerful, thank you so much. And what about anyone thinking of doing a marathon or perhaps raising funds for charity, do you have any advice for them?

Right now, it can can feel like there's not a lot of support, and that the rhetoric and attitudes towards different people are against what you feel. But what better way to challenge that narrative, to raise awareness and support organisations than by fundraising?

By putting yourself in something like a marathon, people want to support you and to better understand the why – why you want to do it, and what kind of organisations you’re fundraising for. So, it's given me an opportunity to raise awareness and get organisations like WAST out there to more people.

You can do it too! It's not hard to do small (or bigger) fundraisers. It's just about identifying organisations that mean something to you and seeing what you can do. Because really we can, we can all do something.

So yeah, that's what I'm saying. Just go for it!

How you can support Rachel

We’re so grateful to Rachel for running on behalf of WAST. We want to say a HUGE THANKS and wish her all the best on marathon day! If you’d like to support Rachel’s fundraiser you can do so here:

Or, if you’d like to fundraise for WAST – get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.