15 December 2019, Kathmandu
Running can assist strengthen muscles in order to increase endurance. People walks and runs for different purposes. Some runs to stay fit and healthy while other runs to compete in race or try something new. It may sound completely different that some people often run with charity purpose. It is quite a new phenomenon, also known as ‘charity run’ with a soul purpose to raise fund in the name of charity to help needy people.
Rosie Swale Pope, a British author, adventurer and marathon runner is one who successfully completed a five-year around the world run raising £ 250000 for a charity that supports orphaned children in Russia and to highlight the significance of early diagnosis of prostate cancer.
“In Germany in the forest, I came across a guy lying on the path and it was quite obvious he was dying. He absolutely had nothing, and he was crying and unhappy. I did not know what to do because I was not in touch with anybody, as my phone wasn’t working … I held him, I held him for about an hour, he was beyond help and he just died in my arms.”From the border of Serbia, Rosie Swale Pope is recounting her most profound experience while on her run from Brighton, England to Kathmandu, Nepal.
When most people have hung up their running shoes for good, or at best manage a slow shuffle round the local park, the loquacious grandmother has embraced her another major adventure. Despite the vulnerability that comes with being a single older woman on the road, Swale-Pope’s vast travel experience has given her a philosophical outlook on the dangers. “Security comes from being vulnerable and learning how to adapt to it,” she said.
The legendary charity runner has jogged her way across Europe to Istanbul, Turkey as she set off her 6,000-mile journey from Brighton, UK to Kathmandu, Nepal in July 2018. The 72-year-old lady took on the challenge in an effort to raise the support for a project to improve health, education and livelihoods of local community in Nepal, which was struck by a devastating earthquake in 2015.
She said- “I am running to Nepal to help the people in Nepal, many of whom had a very, very bad time after the severe earthquake. I am proud to be running for this very amazing charity. As she jogged by the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, the top tourist destinations of Istanbul, she said that ” It is not only about just giving people food. It is about helping these talented people to grow their own food.”
Rosie further added that Nepal is still struggling to rebuild the nation after the bitter experience of massive earthquake occured on April 25, 2015 which nearly killed 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000 with 7.8, magnitude making nearly 1 million peoples homeless.
Pope, a resident of Tenby, Wales embraced this wonderful journey with a charity purpose. She has jogged through Turkey as 13th country and the Republic of Georgia is next on her itinerary. She covers an average of 20 kilometers(12.4 miles a day), A bright red cart where she transports her belongings is tied behind her waist while she runs. She added- ” I never know where I sleep every night. I sleep in fields. I sleep in the streets. I get up and run. I meet people I would never meet any other way”.
And actually, it is a way of giving more to life because I have more. You do not go out and you do not wait for the world to come to you. I have to go out to see the people. Thus, Pope has been recognized as one of the world’s longest solo runner who ran in different time periods. She ran solo around the world in 2004 to raise money for charity and in 2015, she ran across the United States – from New York to San Francisco to honor her late husband, Clive who died from prostate cancer. She described herself as “just an ordinary person, and old”. But she has made such a special contribution connecting all over the world.
Her latest adventure to Nepal originally started as a journey to Berlin to meet her book publishers, but after gentle encouragement from Phase Worldwide- a charity which supports health, education and livelihoods in remote parts of Nepal-she decided to continue onward to Kathmandu. She added “partly I am lazy and self-indulgent. I do things for joy because I love them, not to test my limits or to be unhappy. I do it to be happy.”
Swale-Pope seems to have gained confidence in life from her early hard times. Born in Switzerland, she was orphaned as a child and raised by her grandmother. “I’ve lost many, many people in my life. We were very poor when I was a kid. My grandmother could not walk but she gave me the space of the wide horizons in my mind. All I can tell you is that I’m really happy.” The British charity runner is no stranger to the extreme challenges.
