Leeds Building Society backs running event

The lender will now support parkrun, which has now has 54 events in Yorkshire attracting over 11,000 weekly runners and is entirely volunteer run.

The news comes as Leeds Building Society publishes research today which shows that 31 per cent of adults in Yorkshire and Humber now don’t feel close to anyone in their local community, higher than the national average.

The society said events like parkrun are encouraging people across Yorkshire to join the rapidly-growing running and volunteering community to meet more local people.

Nikki Marsh, Leeds Building Society’s director of customer and digital, said: “Our new research shows that across the UK there’s a real desire for people to meet and get to know others in their neighbourhood.

“We believe parkrun, which offers free weekly runs and volunteering opportunities in over 450 locations across the UK, really helps bring communities together.

“It’s a brilliantly simple way for adults and families to join a local initiative whilst getting fit and active at the same time.

“Like us, parkrun was set up to improve the lives of its members and through our partnership, we’ll be helping more people get involved and supporting projects and programmes that we believe will bring a lasting benefit to those involved, our members and their wider communities, as well as helping ensure parkrun stays free to everyone”.

Dr Ollie Hart set up the first Graves parkrun in Sheffield with the help of others from his practice in 2012 and the event now regularly attracts more than 200 runners.

“Every parkrun is an effective, enduring, community development project that brings people together,” he said.