Running for Life
Sky Sports News' Special Report followed presenter Charlie Webster's Running for Life initiative.
Last Updated: 05/06/12 4:07pm
Sky Sports News' Special Report followed presenter Charlie Webster's work with deprived youngsters through a Running for Life initiative.
Charlie has helped a group of 17-19-year-olds from South London train for a 48-hour endurance challenge that includes a 30k Duathlon in Hyde Park and climbing more than 2000 stairs across 17 tube stations.
It is part of a programme that aims to help young people from deprived areas find motivation and strength through sport.
If the group successfully completes its challenge, the teenagers will be rewarded with a night of celebration and an awards ceremony at Somerset House in central London, and Charlie hopes the youngsters, from Lambeth and Brixton, will take lessons from sporting competition into other areas of their lives.
"The latest generation that lives here faces an uncertain future. More than a third of them live in poverty, one in four 10-year-olds is obese, but most of the youngsters I've met want to find a way out of the cycle," Charlie told Special Report.
"A lack of social and economic mobility continues to plague this area, the youngsters from Brixton struggle to see any hope for their future. That's why I set up the Running for Life project, to work with a number of teenagers from this area.
"These seven teenagers share in the hope that they can make something of their lives, that there is a future for them in society and that they can break the cycle.
"The long-term goal is to grow Running for Life across the country so that young people can grow with, unearthing skills and discovering self-belief through sport."
Running For a Life's 48-hour endurance challenge will take place on June 8-10 in London.
Come and join in a section of our challenge whether it's the Duathlon, the Boris bike, the stair climb or the Circle Line half marathon.
