Girls’ Day Out! Women-Only Hydro Active Challenge Starts Sunday

Women will be out in force on Sunday 4 September in London, Birmingham and this year’s new addition, Liverpool, for the Lucozade Sport Hydro Active Women’s Challenge.

The Challenge comprises a series of women-only 5k running events for all abilities from fun runners to professionals and are organised by the same team responsible for the world famous London Marathon.

The Hydro Active, the UK’s largest women-only event, is a great fundraising opportunity, this year’s two main charities being the Breast Cancer Campaign and Cancer Research UK.

The Children’s Society is also one of the charities allocated a guaranteed number of places in the Challenge. Alex Curran, fiancée to Steven Gerrard, announced back in July that she would be running to raise money for The Children’s Society in the Liverpool run.

She said: “I’m looking forward to taking part in the Liverpool Hydro Active Women’s Challenge for The Children’s Society. This is the perfect opportunity to help raise money for children and young people who run away.

“The race is only 5km, so there’s no excuse for us girls not to get in shape and take part. It’s going to be a fun morning out and all my friends and family are sponsoring me. I hope all the ladies in Liverpool will join me to help The Children’s Society and get fit!”

Other celebrity runners include Emmerdale stars Charlotte Bellamy, who plays Laurel Potts, and Nicola Wheeler, otherwise known as Nicola Blackstock. Both have called on all women across the Midlands to join in the run to raise awareness of the 2,500 children under the age of 16 who run away from home or from care in the Midlands alone.

Ms Bellamy said: “The Hydro Active Challenge is one of the easier ones to complete and doing it for young runaways makes it so much more worthwhile.”

Ms Wheeler also said: “I’m really looking forward to taking part in this challenge and helping to raise money for The Children’s Society and their work with young runaways.

“I’m looking forward to joining all the women from the Midlands who are running for The Children’s Society – I know it’s going to be a great day out for all us girls!”

Each runner for the Children’s Society is asked to raise £100 in sponsorship to go towards the charity’s work with young runaways. The Children’s Society has set up a Safe and Sound campaign which calls on the government to set up a network of safe emergency refuges to protect children and young people forced to runaway from their homes.

This year’s running tops have been designed exclusively by fashion house Frost French, established in 1999 by actress Sadie Frost and fashion designer Jemima French, to add a bit of designer flair to the event.

Last year’s event saw more than 22,000 take part in the London run which took place in Hyde Park, with around 5,000 running around Birmingham city centre. Around 5,000 runners are expected to turn up for the new run in Liverpool this year.