Fundraising effort helps runners see the light

A youth athletics coach has spoken about the ‘amazing difference’ a set of floodlights has made to her Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC (WSEH) training sessions.

With the evenings drawing in, Shireen Higgins feared she might be forced to cancel her weekly training group for middle distance runners as she was finding it difficult to manage the sessions in a COVID-secure way.

But, over the last few months, she has managed to raise the money needed to pay for six portable floodlights, enabling her to continue training her young runners through the winter months.

“It’s made a really big difference,” she said this week. “It’s amazing how pitch black it is when we turn off the lights.”

Over the summer the groups were able to train in the park outside the Thames Valley Athletics Centre or in nearby Upton Court Park without a problem, but Shireen was finding it difficult to safely keep track on everyone as the evening light faded. With no funding for the group she feared the lights could literally go out on all the hard work the group had put in.

But, with the help of some generous contributions from parents, she’s managed to raise more than £3,350 on GoFundMe and has used that money to buy six portable lights.

Speaking this month Shireen said: “I’m happy because we’ve raised the money. During lockdown some of the younger ones were too nervous to leave the house, but I spoke with them every week and got them out running. We’ve only lost two runners over lockdown, I sent them a plan every week and we managed to keep them all going.”