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Vegan athlete Fiona Oakes is running 625 miles before Christmas to raise money for the residents at her animal sanctuary, Tower Hill Stables, in Essex, England.
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Oakes will run 25 miles daily – the equivalent of eight back-to-back Park Runs – between December 1 and December 25 to fundraise. According to her GoFundMe page, a challenge sponsor will double the total amount raised by Oakes, which currently sits at GBP £21,560.
The runner chose 625 miles as this is the rough daily cost in pounds of feeding the 400 animals who live at her sanctuary. Winter is a difficult time for all sanctuaries as outgoings skyrocket, but a cost of living crisis will make the coming months particularly challenging.
Oakes will carry out all her normal sanctuary work around a time-consuming daily running schedule. She also ran 500 miles last December as a fundraising challenge, and the year before ran 52 miles on Christmas Eve. This challenge will have the highest mileage to date.
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Fiona Oakes ‘thriving’ after 50 years of veganism
Oakes is an acclaimed distance runner with four world records for marathons and many other notable achievements in the sport. She founded Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary in 1993.
“The Sanctuary was born out of a need to find a safe haven for the animals I already had in my care,” Oakes previously told Plant Based News. “But when I had my own land I was given the potential to be able to rescue animals from the farming industry.”
Oakes has been vegan since she was six years old. She wrote on GoFundMe that in addition to fundraising for the sanctuary, this year’s goal is also about demonstrating that she can run the distance and do the work to show she is “thriving” after 50 years of veganism.
The runner has been posting daily updates on both Instagram and Patreon.
Read more: Animal Sanctuaries Need You This Winter – Here’s How To Help
