Bedford 5K Your Way, Move Against Cancer

Great to be a part of this

2nd Run Report for Bedford parkrun event 693 on 30th June 2026

So why you might be wondering, when Helen has already issued a great run report with all the stats, am I writing a second one now?
Those of you who listened to the briefing may realise why. As we normally do, Bedford’s 5K Your Way, Move against Cancer group were meeting on the last Saturday of the month, but this month we were hosting a special event. David Henderson, the CEO of the Move Against Cancer charity happens to be local to Bedford and decided to do an awareness raising challenge, 24 sports in 24 hours. An old, as in former school friend, joined him as did I, though my intention was to aim for 12 in 24 hours. Also just to calm your expectations none of these challenges was expected to last a full hour, some might be longer, but most were shorter than this.

So again, you may be asking what are we raising awareness of? Amusingly we had the Fake Festival setting up in the park as we did parkrun and it made me think that the news that we want to share is not “fake news”. There is increasingly scientific evidence that more movement (I don’t want to use the off putting to many word exercise) for those with cancer, and everyone else too, really is good for us. Movement is beneficial in cancer prevention, it is beneficial in what we call pre-hab (ie before treatment) and it is beneficial in reducing the side effects of treatment. It does not have to be intense exercise but just moving more. Even following treatment it can help prevent recurrence or relapse.
Many would say moving more should be prescribed to everyone as it is better than any pharmacological pill, and it doesn’t just help for cancer but all other diseases physical and mental.
In addition to the awareness that moving more is good we wanted to raise awareness of the three strands of Move Charity’s work.
The first, by reading this, you will already be aware of. There are now 132 5K Your Way groups across the country meeting as a “coffee morning with a difference”. The aim is that anyone can walk, jog, run, volunteer or cheer and hang out with others in a non clinical way. Having cancer is not a pre-requisite to be involved as we are all affected in some way by cancer, whether it be as friends, families or health care professions. To find out more visit www.moveagainstcancer.org
Move Charity first started by developing an 8 week online support programme for young people age 13-30 living with or beyond cancer. There are now many young people who have been helped across the nation.
The third strand of the charitys work is online resources, including a podcast, workshops, and signposting to all sorts of other resources.
You may have worked out this report is being written more than 24 hours after Bedford parkrun too place, so did we succeed?
The answer is yes. Three of us (me included as my competitive nature took over) managed 25 activities. Many others joined us for activities like football, cricket and even rowing on the river at various times during the day. I baulked at squash and road cycling so found other things to replace them. We learned that being 6’ 8” can help with basketball but being smaller like me was better suited to table-tennis. We also learned some are better at endurance, some are better with hand-eye co-ordination and some of those things you hated at school can be quite fun now.

So a big thank you to Bedford parkrun for allowing us to start the challenge there, and to Bedford Junior parkrun by letting us finish in Jubilee Park by volunteering. We love to see these youngsters learning how important is

It was a hot one today from Bedford 5KYW and we were very happy to have David Henderson from MOVE Against Cancer Charity starting his 24 sports in 24 hours with us at Bedford parkrun. Jenny Wilson our regional ambassador told everyone what we do and is joining David with many his sports today. one of our ambassadors, Michelle Sorley Smith was also flying the flag at a parkrun in South Africa

Come and join us at Bedford parkrun for the start of David’s challenge

Bedfordian to take on sport through the night as part of '24 in 24' charity challenge - Bedford Independent A Bedford man is asking for donations towards a '24 Sports in 24 Hours' challenge in aid of MOVE Against Cancer...

Bedford Foodbank | Helping Local People in Crisis Please note our last session this year is Tuesday 23rd December at Christ Church 140 Dudley Street, Bedford from 13:00 to 15:00.