A group of boys are set to run the Sheffield half marathon in a bid to end knife crime, and violence amongst young people.
The friends were prompted to act after the death of Sheffield school boy Harvey Willgoose, who was stabbed while at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield last month. They will be raising money for city charity Always An Alternative. Which aims to spread awareness around reducing knife crime and violence.
Billy, the organiser of the GoFundMe page said: “We chose Always An Alternative because we can relate to them, as they are local to us. I personally received help when I was younger from one of the workshops and some of the lads knew Harvey Willgoose.”
According to Government statistics; In the year ending March 2024, just over 3,200 knife offences were committed by children, with this statistic being 20 per cent greater than 10 years prior – Always An Alternative aims to spread awareness in order to significantly decrease this.
The fundraisers said that all those taking part know people who have been involved in gang crime and have witnessed violence involving knives first hand. Although they acknowledge that there are places in the UK where knife crime is more significant, Knife crime is on the rise in South Yorkshire. Just last week, a pupil at Watts academy in Rotherham was expelled due to bringing a knife onto school premises.
Anthony Olaseinde, charity CEO, said fundraisers such as this will enable them to fund and have the resources to create knife crime awareness projects with young people. Which will hopefully lead to a significant decrease of across South Yorkshire.
Billy said: “We all feel safe in our environments but clearly places close to us aren’t secure enough and young people need major help”
The group are currently preparing for the marathon doing both solo and group runs and documenting their journey on TikTok to gain further support.
The GoFundMe page has reached a total of £2,331, and the group hope to reach a target of £2,600 by the time they run the Half Marathon later this month.
