Game Changers

parkrun: Building a community

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Episode notes

How can you transform peoples lives through running?

Growing up in South Africa, parkrun founder - Paul Sinton Hewitt - used running as a way to unwind and challenge himself. But it was often a solitary experience. Later, as his career took him around the world, he realised what he wanted was a running community.

And so, he dreamed up parkrun: to bring people together, to run, to chat, in a welcoming atmosphere – all at no cost.

It’s been a sensation.  Each week at parks around the world, hundreds of thousands of people meet at the start line. And with a little help from The National Lottery, it’s now bigger than ever.

Game Changers host, Aimee Fuller - two-time Olympian, author and broadcaster – meets Paul to talk about his visionary idea, and discovers not just Paul’s modesty, but his ambition – to make parkrun an even bigger success.

We also have a special guest: broadcaster Clare Balding reads a new poem inspired by The National Lottery’s sporting Game Changers.  

The poem has been written for display in several sporting locations across the UK. Artist and poet Robert Montgomery describes the challenge of floating the poem on the surface of a swimming pool, and the inspiration he has taken from Paul and all the Game Changers in Sport.

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Game Changers is brought to you by National Lottery players, who raise £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. For more information about projects that help ordinary people, visit: https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

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