Fundraiser off after sponsored runners fail to pay
SuppliedAn annual charity fun run has been cancelled after sponsored runners failed to pay in their donations.
Micky Day, from Miles for Men, a Hartlepool-based charity for those affected by cancer, said it had cancelled its 5km (3.1 mile) fun run this year due to it "no longer being financially viable".
The team had seen people on social media announcing they had raised funds for the organisation, but when they went to cross-reference their names, they found nothing had been donated, Mr Day said.
"It's absolutely gut-wrenching to think people would do this to our charity, or any charity," he added.
Mr Day said the charity had noticed it had been happening for multiple years.
"We've grafted, like, full-blown for years and years, it's a full-time job and more," he said
"We just thought, 'You know what, it's time to let people know what's actually been going on.'"
In a post on social media, Mr Day said last year "only a handful of individuals and groups handed in their collected sponsor money".
Mr Day said: "We understand people are struggling and we understand what's going on in the world."
He said in 2012 and 2013 the charity received more than £80,000 in sponsorship money.
But in the last three years they got less than £18,000 in total, despite having one of their best turnouts for the Hartlepool run last year.
Mr Day said the race day took eight months to organise and cost more than £14,000 "with prices increasing all the time".
"What's the point in having to work for eight months and we're not getting anything for the community out of it," he said.
"That is absolutely brutal."
'Handful of volunteers'
Mr Day assured people the charity would still carry on with different fundraising events.
"We're only a little handful of volunteers trying to make a difference," he said.
Over the past 13 years, the organisation had helped support families in the North East with cancer, created fundraisers for "life-changing" operations and had even done weddings for people who were terminally ill, Mr Day said.
Miles for Men also successfully campaigned to fulfil the wish of a nine-year-old boy with cancer, Riley Bains, to meet his hero Ryan Reynolds.
"We've done all sorts of things like that," Mr Day said.
"For a handful of people we make a massive difference."