Dan Thompson will be running 10km in Kathmandu on November 11th as part of his Run the World Challenge. Run the World is an extraordinary challenge that has been created by Dan, a British businessman and sports enthusiast, who has undertaken to run 10km in every country in the world - a total of 206 countries - by the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Dan is doing the challenge to promote the benefits of sport and physical activity and to raise money for cancer research following the recent death of his mother from cancer.Dan has previously run in 60 countries in Africa, South-East Asia, South America, Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

 Dan is also talking to interested parties all over the world about a global Run the World event designed to celebrate and encourage running, walking and cycling and raise money for local charities.

 Dan commented “I’m very much looking forward to running in Nepal and hope that as many people as possible will join me on the runs.  I’d like to stress that everyone is welcome to take part - irrespective of their level of fitness or running speed. Participants are also welcome to run part of the way, join in on bike or just come along and support the runners!”

 The run will start at 15.00 on November 11th meeting at Park Village Resort, Budhanilkantha (North Kathmandu)

 Jenny Flack, Senior Local Fundraising Manager for Cancer Research UK said; “We are thrilled that Dan has chosen to take on such an incredible challenge to raise funds to support our research. We fund research into over 200 different types of cancer and without the dedication and generosity of supporters like Dan, we wouldn’t be able to see the incredible progress we have been able to make.”

Run the World

 Run the World is an extraordinary challenge that has been created by Dan Thompson, a British businessman and sports enthusiast, who has undertaken to run 10km in every country in the world - a total of 206 countries - by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Dan is doing the challenge to promote the benefits of sport and physical activity and to raise money for cancer research following the recent death of his mother from cancer.

 Dan has already completed 60 runs in Africa, South-East Asia, South America, Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East.  The Run The World Challenge follows on from Dan’s 2012 Olympic Challenge which saw him undertake every different Olympic and Paralympic event – 114 events in total including show jumping, the 10m high dive, white water canoeing, 10km open water swim, 150km road cycle, 50km walk, the marathon and the pole vault.

 The Run the World event is a global event designed to celebrate and encourage running, walking and cycling and raise money for local charity. The proposal is that, starting at the same (local) time on one day each year, people around the world would run, walk or cycle 10km. The event would start in the East and end in the West with as many countries as possible having participated over a 24 hour period.

The objectives would be to create a fantastic global event that participants will enjoy and remember, promote exercise & physical activity as key components of physical and mental health, celebrate running, walking and cycling, allow participants to raise funds for local charities (should they so wish) , express international solidarity in difficult times

 After a career in media (music, video games, internet), Dan founded Gold Challenge. Gold Challenge launched in late 2010 and ran two Olympic and Paralympic inspired challenges in the run up to London 2012. Gold Challenge partnered with the British Olympic Association/Team GB, Paralympics GB and Sport England and was part of the official London 2012 mass participation legacy program.  Gold Challenge also worked closely with LOCOG and hosted one of the pre-Games test events in the Olympic Stadium.

 The challenges were highly successful with over 105,000 participants. More than 200 schools and 100 corporates took part including large employers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Atos, EDF, Cisco, John Lewis and Coca Cola. In excess of £1.5 million was raised for Gold Challenge’s 150 charity partners who included household names such as Cancer Research UK, Oxfam, the NSPCC and Help for Heroes.

Heroes.

 In early 2013, Gold Challenge launched the Take12 Challenge, a healthy living challenge funded by the London Legacy Development Corporation (the body responsible for the Olympic Park post the Games).

Take12 aimed to inspire people in the Olympic host boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Barking & Dagenham to be more active. Focused on in-actives, families and young people, over 15,000 people signed up for Take12. The follow-up program - ‘Take 12 in the Park’ – has recently launched to encourage people across London to take part in sport and physical activity in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

 Gold Challenge also ran the 2014 Challenge - a free challenge that celebrated the 2014 Commonwealth Games and aimed to motivate people across the world to be more active, raise money for charity and become healthier and fitter.

 In addition to the above, Gold Challenge creates and runs bespoke physical activity, healthy living and fund raising challenges for corporate, public sector employers and charities.

 Gold Challenge has just announced that the Gold Games are set for June 25th 2016 in the Olympic Park / Aquatics Centre / VeloDrome/Park. The Games are a unique opportunity to cycle, swim, run, row and triathlon in the London 2012 Olympic venues whilst helping some of the most disadvantaged communities in the UK. 

 The world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, Cancer Research UK’s groundbreaking work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives. This work is funded entirely by the public.

 The charity supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses. Cancer Research UK is a world leader in discovering new cancer drugs. Through our research, we’ve contributed to the discovery or clinical trials of nearly 50 drugs now being developed. Our scientists and doctors have contributed to many of the world’s top cancer drugs including temozolomide, anastrozole and Herceptin.

Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to beat cancer.