On Sunday 1st May 2022, an army of runners took to the streets of Birmingham for the triumphant return of the Birmingham Great Run.

Cure Leukaemia runners stood out amongst the crowd in our brand new pink running tops after joining Team CL and running for a cure with the aim of raising funds for a vital cause.

Wearing brand new pink specialised running tops from Santini, and kindly sponsored by P3FORM and Village Hotel Gym and Spa, the team took to the streets and ran either the 10k or the half marathon, just over 13 miles.


The CLHQ was set up at the Birmingham Clayton Hotel, where the team were very pleased to be greeted with hot drinks and a comfy chair in preparation, before it was time to set off.

Joining the band of runners, were 2 CL trustees, Alston Owens and Laura Shoaf, and 2 CL team members, including CEO James McLaughlin.

Mayor of Birmingham Andy Street also joined the CL Family and ran the half marathon around the city for Team CL, along with runners from both Solihull Village Hotel and Culture Group.

With an incredible time of just 44 minutes for completing the 10K, Sally was the first to cross the finish time for Team CL, shortly followed by the rest of the team.

Once the runners had crossed the finish line, they were greeted back at the hotel by MuscleFlo massage guns to help ease their sore muscles, and UCB sports therapist massage therapists to help too.

One of the runners, Chris Cleaver, spoke to us a few weeks ago about his motivation for the run:

“This is my first half marathon, I am pushing myself to run further than I ever had for the cure leukaemia team.

In December 2015 our beautiful daughter Amelia was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and we were thrown into a whole new world. 3 years of gruelling chemotherapy and hospital intervention and then we finally got to ring the bell. Amelia won her fight and now is a sassy 9 year old who will be cheering on her Daddy.”

We spoke to Chris after he completed the run, and he said:

“It was harder than I thought after 6 weeks of training! Thank you to Cure Leukaemia for the nice running top, and it was great raising funds too.”

Mayor of Birmingham Andy Street also had a message to all of the runners after finishing, and said:

“Huge thank you to everybody that has run for Cure Leukaemia, a great cause. Lots of pink teeshirts out on the course giving one another encouragement, so hopefully a lot of money has been raised for this charity.”

A massive thank you to everyone who took part and was involved in the Birmingham Great Run, it was so good to see so many people turn up in support for such a great cause and help raise vital funds for Cure Leukaemia.