2010 sees the return of the biennial charity event Sport Relief which takes place over the weekend of the 19th -21st March. Since the first Sport Relief in 2002 people all over the country have taken to all types of sporting challenges to raise money for vulnerable people in the UK and some of the world’s poorest countries. From David Walliams swimming the channel to the then Prime Minister Tony Blair playing in double tennis match the past decade has seen Sport Relief become a national event.
This year’s most publicised challenge has come from comedy legend Eddie Izzard, who unbelievably ran 43 marathons in 51 days. The challenge took him all over the country; from London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and then back to London again. The challenge was completed in September of last year and earned Eddie a special award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Many famous faces joined in along the way and television cameras were there to capture every agonising moment of the 1000 miles plus ran. The BBC will be airing the documentary on BBC3 around the time of the Sport Relief weekend so keep a look out for that!
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People all over the country have taken to all types of sporting challenges to raise money
Another of this year’s challenges will see former England Rugby Union captain Lawrence Dallaglio cycling with approximately 200 friends, family and supporters, from Rome to Edinburgh, along the way visiting all six stadiums in the Six Nations championship in Paris, London, Cardiff and Belfast. The journey will take 5 stages over 26 days totalling an incredible 2,800km in distance, Dallaglio himself said “It sounds like a crazy idea but it’s a challenge I’ve set myself to raise funds for Sport Relief and my recently established Dallaglio Foundation”. As it turns out a close friend of intosport.com, Andrew Dart, will be taking part in the challenge as well and is aiming to raise £3000 for charity “It's been nearly 6 years since I took on the Himalayan Mountain Marathon in aid of my good Friend Tom Woolrich. So I have decided to dust of my sports gear and try something this time on a bike!”
With hundreds of thousands of participants in recent years it now couldn’t be easier to get involved and raise some cash for the very worthy causes; in fact last time around in 2008 over £19 million went to charity. In recent years the Run a Mile campaign has given Sport Relief a central focus and has been open for everyone to take part in. In 2006 more than 423,000 people took part in the Sport Relief Mile, making it one of the biggest mass participation events in history. To get started and run a mile visit www.sportrelief.com and sign up straight away.