Our very own health and fitness guru and good friend Johannes Harding has embarked on an epic fundraising adventure this week.

Johannes, known as Jannie (and sometimes Yanni) to friends, is set to run and hike the entire length of the UK’s South West Coast Path – an incredible 630 miles, the longest continuous footpath in the UK.

Jannie, who has been volunteering at our charity for over a year now is aiming to raise an impressive £10,000 for Share Tanzania, a charity based in East Africa that supports thousands of children as well as families living in crisis.

Jannie said: “I visited Share Tanzania as a volunteer in 2018 and was blown away by the impact that they were having across the whole of the country. They are one of the only charities dealing with the country’s special needs population and by supporting this fundraiser, people will be helping to build a new state of the art children’s village designed to function as a loving, caring environment for children and adults with special needs.”

Jannie has always been passionate about fitness and was working as a freelance personal trainer and sport massage therapist when covid hit. Unable to offer his usual services due to lockdown restrictions he started to look for something positive to do in his local community and for volunteering opportunities in and around Kettering where he lived. That’s when he discovered Teamwork Trust and began teaching health and fitness classes there on a Thursday.

“I’ve always been passionate about special needs from my experience with the charity in Africa,” said Jannie, “and Teamwork is such a lovely dynamic place where members get to express themselves and be part of a community. In my exercise sessions we play games and I give nutritional and muscular skeletal advice. I have really loved my time there and I find just that simply showing service users support and that you care makes a huge difference.

“I’ve received some fantastic support from the Teamwork Trust family and it was very emotional, saying goodbye to everyone before heading off on my adventure. The staff and service users had created a lovely board covered in things from South Africa and we had a mini-interview session where users got to ask me questions about what I was going to be doing – such as how many steps are in a mile.

“They are a wonderful group of people and will forever be part of my life.” See our service users interviewing Jannie

Jannie’s adventure started on 25th May in Minehead, North Devon and he has set himself a target of completing the route within 40 days.

To support Jannie and donate to this good course click HERE.