Video: Susan Wheatcroft on how much Virtual Runner UK has grown
A Wollaton mum has raised nearly £250,000 for charity by creating an online running community including £40,000 for the victims of the Manchester terror attack.
Susan Wheatcroft is the founder of Virtual Runner UK, an online community where users run wherever and however long they want for before uploading evidence of their results to the website.
The results are then submitted into different categories of distance and location on a monthly basis where users earn points which accumulate into prizes at the end of a year.
Some events held are charity fundraisers which has helped to raise nearly a quarter of a million pounds and a contribution to the victims of the Manchester terror attack.
Speaking on Sports Week, Susan said: “The most recent charity we’ve supported which resulted in our largest race to date was for Manchester.
“We encouraged people to run for 22 minutes, a minute for each person who died in the tragic event.
“They did the run in their own time after paying an entry fee which all went to the charity so we gave 50 per cent of everything raised to the MEM fund and 50 per cent to the emergency services in the Manchester areas – we just raised more than £40,000 on that run alone.”
The emergency services got in touch with Susan to thank her for the money donated.
She said: “It meant a lot to them, they don’t usually get donations of that kind of volume, particularly in one go.
“They phoned me and asked me to be involved with how they spend it which was just incredible.
“We are looking at putting defibrillators in local park runs as a possible initiative and it’s great it meant that much to them they wanted my involvement.”
For more from Susan, watch the June 14 episode of Sports Week on our catch-up service by clicking here.
