Claude is one of The Running Charity’s programme officers, he works with vulnerable and homeless young people throughout London, improving their physical fitness and their mental wellbeing. He knows how isolated and invisible you can feel when you are homeless and how your health becomes way down your priority list. Claude knows this because he was once homeless himself.

Claude joined The Running Charity’s inaugural programme in 2012 after battling homelessness for eight-months. He had turned to night buses, friend’s sofas and shelters for refuge, and spent the rest of the time sleeping rough on the streets. He immediately grasped our goal-setting ethos and applied it to his personal life. Like some of our members, he stayed on with The Running Charity, helping new members through the programme and offering peer-support. Within 18-months of graduating he had attended every race, in all weathers, attained his PT level 2 qualification and became a full-time member of staff for The Running charity. In 2015 he completed the London Marathon whilst fundraising for the charity.

His personal insight into the effects of homelessness and the benefits of our work enable him to engage and inspire young people like no other. He is an example of what can be achieved with the right support and personal determination.

This BBC Three video also includes some of the incredible young people Claude has worked with from two of our youth homelessness partners, New Horizon Youth Centre and DePaul UK.

The Running Charity would like to thank the Boost Charitable Trust and the Newby Trust, for their ongoing support in helping to fund Claude’s important work at the charity.