Photocall: 9am, Sunday, 26 May. Sir Bobby Charlton and his charity team at the Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester.
EastEnders star Kacey Ainsworth will join representatives from Manchester United’ s sponsors AON and research engineers to raise funds for locally based landmines research charity Find A Better Way at the 2013 Manchester 10k run.
Thousands will take to the streets for the BUPA Great Manchester Run on Sunday, 26 May.
Find A Better Way was founded by Manchester United and England legend Sir Bobby Charlton is a unique charity dedicated to providing practical, humanitarian solutions to the global problem of landmines.
Kacey, best known for her role as Little Mo in TV soap EastEnders will be running alongside friend and neighbour Elizabeth McGill.
Elizabeth, a Find A Better Way trustee, is the wife of Steve McGill, Group President of AON Plc, a major sponsor of the Knutsford based charity. Steve’s son, Chris McGill, is also running for the charity.
Kacey and Elizabeth are among a team of 12 Find A Better Way runners representing Find A Better Way, others include four members of a post graduate engineering research team at Manchester University. This research team are working on a Find A Better Way sponsored project to find a quicker and safer solution to the problem of detecting landmines in war torn countries across the world.
The group also features four members of a post graduate engineering research team at Manchester University which is working on a Find A Better Way sponsored project to find a solution to the problem of detecting landmines in war torn countries across the world.
The full team is:
Liz McGill, Find A Better Way Trustee
Kacey Ainsworth, actress
Karen James, a friend of Liz McGill and supporter of Find A Better Way
Chris McGill. The son of AON Group President, Steve McGill
Professor Anthony Peyton, Manchester University
Dr Frank Podd, Manchester University
Dr Liam March, Manchester University
Joel Radiven and Omar Abdel Rehim, students on Professor Peyton’s landmine research project team
Anna Peyton, daughter of Professor Peyton and a charity supporter
Hannah Gallen, granddaughter of Find A Better Way Chairman and Rene Wang-Rattansey, friend and supporter of Find A Better Way.
Sir Bobby founded Find A Better Way after seeing the devastation caused by landmines during visits to Bosnia and Cambodia.
Sir Bobby, a Director of Manchester United was able to meet with AON executives to explain his charity’s aims. This created a strong relationship between the two and has led to the global risk industry becoming more aware of the problems and the need for better support in this area. Several companies from the risk industry have made very generous donations which has enabled research to continue.
Manchester University based Professor Anthony Peyton is a Manchester 10k veteran and will this year be running for Find A Better Way.
Professor Peyton leads a research team at the University’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering which has been commissioned by Find A Better Way to work on improving the technology which will allow metal detectors to identify landmines among the sea of metal debris lurking underground in former conflict zones,
He said: “As a Manchester based research team we are proud to be able to support FABW in our city’s well known 10k event.
“We are only a short way into our research project but the early indications are that we will be able to use technology to find a solution to the huge amount of time wasted detecting metal objects other than landmines by humanitarian clearance teams
“This project with Find A Better Way is one of the most advanced research programmes to aid humanitarian (non-military) landmine detection currently being undertaken.”
ENDS
For further information contact Nigel Howle on 07762043436, email [email protected]
Notes to Editors:
Find A Better Way is working with research scientists to develop technology to accelerate the detection and safe removal of the estimated 110 million landmines in place around the world.
Find A Better Way is based at Booths Hall, Knutsford, Cheshire.
For more information on Find A Better Way, please visit their website at www.findabetterway.org.uk