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Shantel Thomas, BASW England Chair
"Completing the London Marathon on 26 April 2026 was the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole entire life. Running 26.2 miles is not just a race — it was a reckoning, a becoming. Months of training brought me to the start line - excited and nervous, but it was something deeper that carried me through: the voices of my people, the rhythm of the crowd and a quiet refusal to stop when my body began to give way.
There came a point in the race where everything was stripped back — no performance, no pride, just raw endurance. I hit the wall at mile 20, I broke down, I cried, I questioned every life choice - but still kept moving. Running for St Michael’s Fellowship made this a full-circle moment — honouring the work of care, support and the transformative power of being held and supported, even when you feel like you’re falling apart.
This finish line was never mine alone. It belongs to every woman in the Anti-Racist Movement (ARM) and beyond who knows what it means to keep going in the face of exhaustion, doubt and resistance — to show up, again and again, even when the road feels impossibly long. Because that’s what this marathon revealed to me: that perseverance is not loud or glamorous — it is quiet, stubborn and deeply rooted. As Audre Lorde reminds us, “When I dare to be powerful… then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” And somewhere between the breaking point and the finish line, I dared and I finished."
If you’d like to support, you can donate here: https://2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/shantel-thomas
Ted Singleton, BASW Member
NIHR Local Authority Fellowship Awardee: In August 2024, I was awarded a prestigious NIHR Pre-Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship, a highly competitive national award secured by very few social workers in the UK.
The Fellowship funded salary, master’s-level training and mentorship, supporting research and leadership development. Following successful completion, the Fellow is now preparing an application for an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship.