MileShy Meet Up Broomwood - our second free mental health support group starts January!

We are so delighted to announce the expansion of our mental health offer - we have a brand new group launching next month. MileShy MeetUp Broomwood begins Monday 5th January!

Based on the Five Ways to Wellbeing, this new group will offer a different activity each week to support and improve poor mental health - a supportive and safe space to connect, breathe, learn something new and rebuild hope.

Our brilliant wellbeing practitioners Gaynor and Emily will be co-leading the group every Monday, from 5pm until 7pm at Broomwood Community Wellbeing Centre, Timperley, WA15 7JU.

This group has been made possible thanks to National Lottery players and is funded for a full year by the National Lottery Community Fund - support like this genuinely saves lives and we are so grateful for the funding.

If you'd like to get involved - as an attendee or a volunteer - we'd love to hear from you.

You can find out more and get signed up HERE

NIGHTINGALE CENTRE WELLBEING DAY

MileShyClub founder, Jane, and MileShyClub runner, Lisa, recently attended the Nightingale Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital to present at their Health and Wellbeing Day for people living with breast cancer. 

Lisa gave a very real and moving account of her own experience of living with breast cancer - an uplifting story of how increasing her physical activity really helped her before, during and after her treatment. We are so proud of the passion she spoke with and the inspiration she brought to the room. 

If you’d like to find out more about Lisa’s story you can read all about it HERE where she’s listed as one of our biggest inspirations.

MILESHYCLUB X RUN THE STREETS FUNDRAISER

In May this year, in the middle of Mental Health Awareness Week,  we held our MileShyClub x Run The Streets fundraiser for MileShy Meet Up - our Mental Health Support group. What an absolutely fantastic night it was! We want to send a huge thank you to the Run The Streets team, especially Nat, who reached out after seeing our post about the group’s funding coming to an end.

We want to also say a huge thank you to the local running community who showed up in full force - our MileShy members from many of our clubs across the whole of Greater Manchester plus so many of our friends from Run The Joules, Dragons, Monton Runners and Manchester Road Runners. Thanks also to those that turned up on their own after seeing the event advertised online - there was a real sense of community which was very fitting as that was the theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week.

Huge thanks also to those who didn’t run but still contributed to the event - all those who showed up to support us by taking part in the social and the quiz and all those that couldn’t be with us on the evening but made donations online. We were blown away by the support.

In total we raised £918.50 - that’s weeks of connection, support and a safe space for people who need it. We are immensely grateful to you all.

DR PUNAM TAKES PART IN MILESHYCLUB COUCH TO 5K SESSION LIVE ON THE BBC!

After MileShyClub’s recent appearance on BBC Morning Live Dr Punam was inspired to give Couch To 5K another go, so she came along to our Friday morning Altrincham club to take part in our session live on air! Whilst filming in John Leigh Park she also interviewed Coach Mark about how running had changed his life before joining in with our Couch To 5K session  and chatting to new runners Gary and Tamsin about why they’d joined MileShyClub!

It was so uplifting to hear how running had improved Mark’s life in so many ways - we hear the same thing time and time again and it never gets old. We loved that Gary and Tamsin’s stories established that there are many reasons why people join a running club, and MileShyClub in particular - Gary joined as he was new to the area and wanted to make new friends whilst getting fit and Tamsin had run in the past and wanted to get back to it gently by starting with Couch To 5K. After their first sessions both Gary and Tamsin agreed that they had come to the right place!

MILESHYCLUB APPEAR ON BBC MORNING LIVE TO DISCUSS COUCH TO 5k

Last Friday MileShyClub were featured on BBC Morning Live - Dr Punam Krishan came to talk to some of our runners and coaches about Couch To 5K and the impact it has had on their lives. Dr Punam first met with club founder and CEO Jane to ask why she started MileShyClub - Jane went on to explain she really wanted to start a fully inclusive beginners running club where everybody was welcome and nobody ever got left behind. She talked about how running really helped her own poor mental health when she was younger and how she loved to help other people learn to love running to improve their physical and mental health.

Dr Punam then chatted with Coach Tara about why she started running and how she felt running her first ever parkrun after completing Couch To 5K. Tara then talked about how the MileShy community, and wider running community, changed her life.

The BBC also filmed our Wythenshawe club’s first C25K session of the year and spoke to some of our amazing new recruits that were trying running for the very first time - they talked about why they wanted to give Couch To 5K a go and asked them how they felt about their first session.

HUGE thankyou to everybody that took part in filming with the BBC - you were all absolutely fantastic ambassadors for the club and we are so proud to have you all as part of the MileShy community.

If you’d like to see the full video you can see it on YouTube HERE.

MILESHYCLUB APPRECIATION AWARD FOR 2024 GOES TO.. COACH KATH FROM SALE!

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the MileShyClub Appreciation Award for 2024 is Coach Kath Flynn from our Sale club! Numerous nominations came through for Kath, as they do every year, but this year saw the highest number of nominations we have ever seen.  Kath has been with the club since our very first session almost eight years ago and we are extremely lucky to have her!

Runners said in their nominations “She is the glue that keeps Sale going and the backbone of the club”, “She is a great coach who is also a true friend”, “She is a true champion of MileShy”, “She is someone who really cares”, “Kath’s an awesome coach who nurtures and inspires” and “She is always with our runners every step of the way”. HUGE congratulations Kath!

MileShy HQ all got a bit emotional reading through the 74 nominations we received this year! We always read every nomination and share the lovely comments with those nominated as it’s always a nice thing to receive at the end of the year.  Thank you to everyone who submitted their entries.

MILESHYCLUB KICK OFF THE FESTIVE FUN WITH OUR SALE SANTA DASH 2024

What an AMAZING time we had at this year’s Santa Dash - even a little bit of rain couldn’t hamper our Christmas spirit. Thankyou so much to everybody that came down and took part - we were so impressed with all the effort that went into the costumes!

This was our fifth year of running the event and we are so proud that it has become real staple in the local community’s countdown to Christmas - we sold out three whole weeks before the event and had lots of enquiries about tickets right up until the day of the event.

In previous years we have raised money for Trafford Choices, Papyrus and 3 Dads Walking, Stockdales and Prostate Cancer UK. This year we decided to raise money for ourselves as MileShyClub is a registered charity that helps support people that wish to improve their physical and mental health. We are absolutely delighted to confirm that the total amount raised was an amazing £1,092.40. We also supported Sale West Food Bank by donating all of our remaining goody bags which featured lots of sweets and crafting items - they were particularly grateful for the children’s goody bags which they said they would be using in their Santa’s Grotto.

Huge thanks go to: Trafford Mayor Amy Whyte for starting both races and taking part in the warm ups. Sale District Scout and Guide Band for supplying a really Christmassy soundtrack to the morning, and also to Coach Dennis for booking them in and playing with them. To Coach Ian for the use of him and his van over the weekend. And to the many, many volunteers who helped pack goody bags and supported throughout the whole event on Sunday.

All photos from the day (and previous years) can be found HERE We can't thank our photographer Derek Stuart-Cole enough for giving up his time to come out and support the event every year (in the cold!)

We love how popular our Santa Dash is every year so we’re currently working behind the scenes to bring you something EXTRA next year - pencil Sunday 13th April in your diary and watch this space!


MILESHYCLUB APPEAR ON BBC BREAKFAST TO DISCUSS "LIFT THE CURFEW" CAMPAIGN

MileShyClub founder and CEO, Jane Dennison, recently appeared on BBC Breakfast to chat to Roger Johnson about our recent involvement in This Girl Can’s “Lift The Curfew” campaign.

Jane appeared alongside Kate Dale from This Girl Can to discuss women’s safety on the streets. Both Jane and Kate really put across the views that needed to be out there - that women (and men) are still being harassed when out exercising on our streets and this is not an issue that is going away. Jane explained that it’s been an ongoing problem since she started MileShyClub eight years ago and it’s an issue that we encounter most weeks.

The interview went so well that Jane was whisked straight off into the BBC Radio Live studio afterwards to discuss the topic further. There were apparently a lot of calls and texts into the BBC on the topic - we really hope the conversation continues and change happens.

You can watch footage of the interview HERE.

MILESHYCLUB LEAD FLAGSHIP RUN FOR THIS GIRL CAN'S "LIFT THE CURFEW" CAMPAIGN

We were so proud to have been asked to take part in the flagship event for This Girl Can’s “Lift The Curfew” campaign - a campaign highlighting how 72% of women in the UK don’t feel safe in the dark and have to change their exercise habits as a result.

We led the flagship run around Manchester with lots of runners from other clubs and we also contributed to the glow-in-the-dark display of UV-lit footsteps which lit up the ground with words such as ‘vulnerable’, ‘anxious’ and ‘afraid’, spotlighting the feelings women experience when getting active outdoors after the clocks go back.

You can see fantastic footage of the event featuring MileShy HERE.

WELCOME MILESHYCLUB BRAMHALL, CHEADLE, CHORLTON AND LONGSIGHT

We launched four BRAND NEW beginner run clubs this September - launching two more clubs in Manchester and two in the brand new borough of Stockport. Welcome to MileShyClubs Chorlton and Longsight and Bramhall and Cheadle.  We now have an amazing FOURTEEN running clubs across Manchester, Salford, Stockport and Trafford. We are constantly asked when we will be opening in other boroughs of Manchester - we’re working on it!

We’re currently in Week Three of Couch To 5K - this is the last week that beginners can realistically join this group intake so if you’d like to start running this year be sure to get signed up HERE and join us.

Our next Couch To 5K starts in January 2025!