#RUNINTHEDARK in an annual event that took place in Manchester on Wednesday 16th of November for the fourth year in a row. Local people put on their running shoes for a good cause. The starting point of the run was Media City Piazza, Salford Quays and participants could run either five or ten kilometers in the dark.
#RUNINTHEDARK is organised in association with The Mark Pollock Trust in order to raise funds for the research of a fast-track spinal cord injury cure. It takes place all over the world and the aim is to raise £5.000.000 for that cause by 2020. The main locations of the event are Cork, Belfast, Dublin, London, Manchester and Taipei, in addition to pop-up events worldwide.
Mark Pollock was an inspirational athlete who started participating in endurance races after losing his sight in 1998. In 2010, he suffered a tragic accident which almost cost him his life and left him paralysed after badly damaging his spinal cord. He set a life goal to try and find a cure for spinal cord injuries in order to help himself and thousands other people who have suffered by paralysis.
The aim of the project is to combine and connect the knowledge of scientists, physiologists and technologists so as to combat the human crisis of paralysis. Mark Pollock operates as the interface between all that and the funding foundations.
“We had 55 five events internationally all on the same night. All the money that we raise goes toward our mission in the Mark Pollock trust which is to find and connect people around the world to fast-track a cure for paralysis”, says Piers White, the founder of #RUNINTHEDARK.
People in Manchester showed a great deal of interest for #RUNINTHEDARK with a record number of over 1200 participants this year. Mark Pollock’s expectations are getting higher every year.
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“Our mission is to find and connect people worldwide working in science, technology, communications and finance to fast-track a cure for spinal cord injury. On the Mark Pollock trust side of things, we do all sorts of work with scientists around the world to combine robotic legs and electrical stimulation.
All of our work on the trust side is founded by #RUNINTHEDARK which is a social enterprise, the profits of which go into the Mark Pollock trust. Over 25,000 people, in over 50 cities around the world took part and it seemed to go very well and we want it to be bigger and better next year”, Mr Pollock said.
For further information on the event and the organisations holding it, you can visit the following websites:
https://www.markpollocktrust.org/about-us
Piers White interview
Mark Pollock interview
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