00:00 I'm really looking forward to taking part in my first Great North Run. I watch it every
00:07 year on the television and the atmosphere looks amazing, so I can't wait to experience
00:14 it myself. I think it's something that every Geordie has to do at some point in their life.
00:20 It's such an amazing event for the region and I'm excited to be part of that.
00:26 Obviously, I won't be running myself because I can hardly walk, never mind run. I'm also
00:33 quite lazy. In fact, if laziness was a sport, I'd come in fourth, so I wouldn't need to
00:41 walk up to the podium. So, I'm having some friends push me in my wheelchair instead.
00:47 I'm very grateful to Paul, Lee, Hannah and Ollie for volunteering to push me around the
00:54 course and I promise to lay off the chocolate buddings until after the race.
01:01 Smile for Life is just a brilliant charity and I'm proud to be their patron. They do
01:07 great work with disabled children and young people and they really work hard to empower
01:14 these young people to achieve everything that they can in life. I think that their work
01:20 is very important so that disabled children can realise they can do anything they like
01:27 when they grow up. When I was young, I didn't have many disabled people to look up to and
01:33 admire, so I've got where I am despite all of that. I'm glad things seem to be changing
01:40 a bit now, but there's still a lot of work to be done before we're equals in society.
01:46 Smile for Life is a North East charity and we support children and young people with
01:50 learning difficulties or physical disabilities. We want to do that to empower them to live
01:56 their best life. It could be through providing specialist equipment to make their lives easier
02:01 or happier, perhaps a new experience that they've never had the opportunity to do or
02:05 enjoy. It could be a respite break with their family. We run youth clubs, Tuesdays and Thursdays,
02:12 to try and reduce social isolation for these youngsters. Probably what we're most well
02:17 known for is our cafe Beam, which we have in Gosforth, and now here at Ouseburn Farm.
02:22 The fact that Lee is doing the Great North Run for us is amazing. He'll raise awareness
02:28 of not just the work that we do, but the fact that people with disabilities can achieve
02:35 things like the Great North Run. There's always a way around this, or being pushed
02:39 by a team along the way. It's inspiring to our youngsters to know that boundaries
02:46 can be crossed and nothing should really stop them in achieving their goals with the right
02:51 support in place. I think Lee doing the Great North Run is just going to demonstrate that
02:56 perfectly and raise lots of money to help us continue our work here in the North East
03:01 as well.
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