NICOLA MILLER

She founded small grassroots charity A Mile In Her Shoes in 2013 with the aim of giving women who are at risk of homelessness, or affected by related issues, a space to try running as a way of boosting their self-esteem.

I was working at a Crisis shelter over Christmas, but I wanted to do more, so I approached one of the workers, also a female runner, and said, “Is there something we could do around running with homeless women?” She got it straight away. Unfortunately, we can’t end homelessness, but we help people get the headspace and benefits of running.

We started with a small group once a week, scrambling around to find kit and discovering all sorts of barriers. I learned very quickly what some of the issues were – we needed to create a safe space where women felt comfortable exercising. In the early days, we took a small group out and one lady who had been joining a lot suddenly wouldn’t even walk with us. It transpired that we had passed people from her community. She felt that they were judging her for running because she was a woman. So we changed the route and, immediately, she was much happier. We don’t make any judgement; we are just making sure that we offer somewhere where women can feel safe on their own terms.

The women we work with don’t want to be watched and heckled by men, but this inevitably happens. So we choose routes where they’ll feel safe: the aim is to provide a safe space for people to relax. We might get a heads-up on who has additional needs, who needs support, but other times, you just have to pick up on these things.

We also have a project, funded by the Mayor of London, to get women who want to do parkrun “socially prescribed” towards A Mile In Her Shoes. That’s been so exciting, with two of our women doing their first. Working in new ways to help more women feel confident and safe about running is what we are all about.’