On 18th February Melvyn Walmsley (75) began his challenge to run 75 miles by 18th March for the Haywards Heath based Anglo-Ghanaian children’s charity Lovey Foundation (UK). With its partner in rural Upper East Ghana, the Lovey Save Child Workers Foundation, supports subsistence farmers’ children into primary schools in Bawku Municipal and Binduri Districts. “Otherwise, they become stone-quarry or farm labourers.” Mervyn says. ‘Lovey’ the nickname of Thomas, the Ghanaian founder who started school in his teens, means ‘kind person.’

Melvyn explains, “Since 2013, 693 children have been supported into 12 rural primary schools. None drop out, many enter secondary or higher education. Only 4% of our income goes on UK overheads, Zoom for trustees’ meetings and our website. 96% funds children into school. We have raised funds through concerts in Cuckfield and Brighton, celebrity poetry evenings, selling Easter and Christmas cards and Thomas’s book The Quarry Girl, car boot sales, and sponsorship of road running, kayaking the Thames, walking from Switzerland to Rome, and a trustee having her hair shaved off.”

Melvyn is running 75 miles, from his home between 18th February and 18th March, his late parents’ birthdays. Melvyn shared that in February to March 2023 he ran 72 miles at 72, but that eight months later he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, requiring six months treatment which prevented him from running again until last autumn.

If you would like to find out more about Melvyn’s run or Lovey Foundation, please contact him on melvyn@ loveyfoundation.org.