Remember Forrest Gump and how he ran across America with people following him inspired by his effort? Well, three men from London were (sort of) inspired by that idea too and set up the Run For Love 1000 campaign.
Run For Love 1000 is a campaign set up by Guy, Rob and Tom to raise money for the Love146 charity which fights human trafficking and raises awareness of the issue across Europe. The campaign aims to raise 150,000 GBP for the charity to build the UK’s first trauma recovery centre for trafficked children and in order to do this the guys plan to run 1,000 miles.
Their journey will see them (and around 150 people) travel to Odessa and commence the first of 39 marathons on April 1st. Their journey will take them from Odessa to Bucharest, through to Sofia and on to Pristina and ultimately finish in Dubrovnik. All in all, eight countries, 1021 miles and 39 marathons in 33 days.
The final leg of their mammoth journey will take the runners from Cavtat to Dubrovnik, a 16 mile run, on Saturday May 4th. A carnival atmosphere will make the last leg of the journey extra special with a party on Banje beach to celebrate. Registration for the ‘Road to Dubrovnik’ race is just 35 GBP.
Rob Morris, President and Co-Founder visited South East Asia to determine how they could help in the fight against child sex trafficking and described his experience at one brothel.
“We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children…raped each night… seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl…”
If you’re interested in donating to this worthy campaign or joining the many runners then visit the website here. Justdubrovnik.com will definitely be supporting the guys all the way!
Potential local runners can find out more information by emailing s.cimerman@adventurerace.hr