A group of truly remarkable women from the Saheli Women’s Group in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, will be taking on one of the biggest and most unlikely challenges of their life by participating in the Bupa Great Birmingham Run half marathon in October.

The majority of the ladies have never run before, and last November, when they decided to take on the challenge having been encouraged to do so by Birmingham City Council, walking to the bus stop was a beyond some of them. In fact one of the ladies was wheelchair bound before embarking on her journey to the start line.

The Saheli group was set up in the late 1990’s and has been instrumental in giving women from the ages of 13 - 83 the chance to take part in a range of physical activities that would not normally have been available to them. Spearheaded by local woman Naseem Akthar, the group have now created an Adventure Hub gym facility, which was made possible through a grant by Sport England’s Active England Grant.

Funded by the NHS and Birmingham City Council, the Saheli Group are a provider of an Exercise Referral service, which provides support for 1,000 patients per year. A large number of these women have chronic health conditions and are newly engaged into exercise, and are offered 12 weeks of guidance and support through physical activity and structured exercise with qualified local women.

The Bupa Great Birmingham Run will take place on Sunday 19th October and will be shown live on C5 from 10AM

www.greatrun.org/birmingham

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