Virtual Santa Fun Run to raise badly needed funds for Winchester hospices

The annual Santa Fun Run in Winchester has been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Instead, the hospices of Naomi House and Jackplace have organised a way to complete the run and raise the charity money safely, ensuring that the runners are protected: a Virtual Santa Fun Run.

Starting on the 6th of December, the usual and the new Santa Fun Run participants can sign up, selecting an area and time period for their household to run, skip or dance 5km in their santa suits in order to raise money for the hospices that are in need.

The Santa suits are delivered to the household address so that no one misses out on the festive theme of the run and a medal is sent to anyone who has raised over £25 in sponsorships with the hopes to raise £20,000 in total by the end of it.

With the corona virus, the hospices have had a very hard time in reaching their financial goals in order to support those in need, the virtual Santa Fun Run being one of many attempts to raise money safely during this time.

Namoi House told Winol: “I’m certainly not going to get anywhere near my target. I’ve had one physical event this year and we were really hoping that the Winchester Santa Fun Run could go ahead.

“We’d spoken to the council, we were told ‘yes, yes it can’ and then obviously with this second lockdown, unfortunately we knew that we would have to go to a virtual only event.

“Businesses aren’t working as much and the communities can’t put the fetes on or the get-togethers, or the carol services that they would usually do to raise funds for us. So, it’s had a massive effect financially.”