A Camberwell actor will run twelve marathons in twelve months in aid of suicide charity James’ Place UK.
Ollie Tennant’s epic challenge will see him tackle three marathons in a gruelling three weeks in April.
“Weirdly, I’m not feeling apprehensive. I’m feeling very excited about them,” the 26-year-old said.
Funds raised will go to James’ Place UK, a charity offering suicidal men free support at centres in Liverpool and London.
Ollie, whose itinerary includes an ultra-marathon through the peaks of Snowdonia, said: “They have a two-day turnaround between people being referred and getting help.
“That’s pretty amazing, particularly in the UK where it takes so long to see a doctor.”
‘Run for Hope’ will take Ollie across the UK, including to Edinburgh, Brighton and Manchester.
Having missed out on a spot on the London Marathon, he and fellow runners will tackle the same route under streetlights the night before.
Ollie trained as an actor at Peckham’s Mountview drama school, has toured nationally with Shakespeare shows and appeared in various music videos.
But in between time on the boards, and running drama workshops for local kids, readers may have spotted Ollie breaking a sweat around South London’s parks.
“I go down through Brockwell Park, up around Tulse Hill and into Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye Common and even to Crystal Palace!”
Ollie is urging other runners to join the cause. “In the UK, 115 people die by suicide every week with 75 per cent of those deaths being male,” he said.
“That’s why I’m running for hope. And I want people to run with me. What I would love this project to be, and to become, is something really big that everyone’s talking about because it’s not just me doing it.”
In September, the UK government announced its suicide prevention strategy for England aiming to reduce the suicide rate within two-and-a-half-years.
100 measures were outlined as part of the strategy including a ‘national alert system’ notifying authorities of emerging methods and a pledge to sop suppliers of lethal substances “at the source”.