I ran the London Marathon in aid of Bristol Refugee Rights
On April 21, I finished the London Marathon with a new personal best. While I did not manage the time I was aiming for, I spent a day loving London, while running with some of my favourite music.
I ran the marathon in aid of Bristol Refugee Rights who do fantastic work with and for asylum seekers and refugees in Bristol. I’m proud to be supporting them and am grateful to them for all they do. Thank you to everyone who donated to my fundraising campaign.
More than one million girls who considered themselves sporty while at primary school drop out of sports as teenagers.
I was one of those girls until my 40s when I discovered running. It will be my utmost priority to reduce the inequality between boys and girls when it comes to physical activity.
Football fans deserve better
I recently enjoyed meeting with Bristol Rovers’ leadership team before heading to the terrace for the game against Reading.
Football brings us together. We watch with our families and friends, at the local, in the stands or in our living rooms. For too long the intense buzz, pure joy (and sometimes gut-punching loss) felt in the all-encompassing emotions of a football match has been diluted with worry about troubles off the pitch.
As the Football Governance Bill makes its way through Parliament, and when the Independent Football Regulator is established, I’ll support clubs like Rovers to grow and give fans a greater say in the running of their clubs.
I hope all the hard work being put in by Rovers’ men’s team and staff to get closer to promotion pays off next season.
I support communities taking back control of bus services
Buses are by far the most used form of public transport in the country, but Britain is one of the few places in the developed world that hands operators’ power to slash bus services and hike fares. Decades of failed deregulation have left communities with little say over the essential services they rely on.
I know from my successful campaign for a bus route from the City Centre to St Paul’s and St Werburgh’s, that reliable buses can be the difference between opportunity and isolation for people across Bristol. Disastrous de-regulation has seen vital services vanish and communities left powerless.
Labour has announced the biggest reform to England’s buses in forty years, which would put power back where it belongs: in the hands of the communities who depend on buses the most. Labour’s plans mean up to 1,300 vital bus routes saved and created across England, and better buses delivered faster by breaking down the barriers to public control of bus services.