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London Marathon: Muslim Aid's Myanmar Run Effort

PRESS RELEASE

Issue date: Thursday 19 April 2018

London Marathon Sunday 22 April: Muslim Aid's Nine 'On the Run' for Myanmar!

For the first time ever, a running team of nine will be joining the London Virgin Marathon for Muslim Aid on Sunday 22 April. The young men and women will each run with a target to raise £5,000 to support the charity's work with communities living in dire conditions within Myanmar. Muslim Aid is one of the few humanitarian charities permitted by the authorities to work inside the country.

Of the nine young volunteers and staff from Muslim Aid setting off from the ExCeL centre on Sunday, only 30-year-old Sadak Mirza has ever run a marathon before. Sadak, who manages Muslim Aid's volunteers' programme has completed three marathons in Berlin, Istanbul and Los Angeles as well as several half marathons around the world.

To encourage the nine runners on their journey of training and fundraising, Muslim Aid's video department has made a short comedy video for Facebook: Muslim Aid's Nine 'On the Run' for Myanmar! The film is a parody of Snatch, the 2000 British humorous crime film by Guy Ritchie. https://www.muslimaid.org/ontherun/

The runners will be wearing 'On the Run' for Myanmar! t-shirts on the race towards the finishing line in central London on Sunday. The funds raised will go to provide shelter, food and education for the people in Myanmar.

Runners available to speak to the media include:



Sadak Mirza [mentioned above], 30, from Birmingham, took up running to inspire other Muslim women to run and help break down stereotypes. Sadak has just returned from Lebanon and Pakistan where she led volunteer aid deployment trips.

Fatima Patel, 36, a maths teacher from Goodmayes, Essex, says she took up this new challenge to push her to the toughest limits knowing that the hard work would help those that really need it. She says she’s feeling anxious, nervous and emotionally charged. Fatima hopes to run it in 4 hours 30 minutes but has a knee injury which may slow her down, however she’s determined not to let it stand in the way of her finishing.

Zac Hussain, 44, Muslim Aid's Director of Business Development, also from Ilford in Essex, has never run a marathon before. He has only been training since Christmas but says he still hopes to complete the marathon in under 5 hours.

Foredul Islam, Major Events and Fundraising Manager at Muslim Aid said: “It’s fantastic that we’ve had such great interest from runners inspired to help the desperate humanitarian crisis within Myanmar. In the last few months alone, over 16,000 people have received aid and we are hoping that this fundraising effort will help us to continue this work as well as keeping this dire situation in the spotlight.”



Notes to Editors

• To interview any of the runners, please contact: Eileen Maybin at [email protected] or call 07769 689438.

• Muslim Aid is a relief and development agency set up in the United Kingdom in 1985 to provide humanitarian assistance to disaster affected countries and to help poor and vulnerable communities overcome poverty. Muslim Aid works with all communities irrespective of faith

We are a faith-based British international charity that provides help to people who are victims of natural disasters or conflict or suffering from poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, injustice, deprivation or lack of skills and economic opportunities.

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