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Danny Stokes is a father of two from Basildon, Essex and a teacher and head of house at Mulberry Academy, Shoreditch in East London.
He's a trail runner who has completed all sorts of events, including several trail marathons and he is transitioning to ultras, with a 40 miler under his belt (although he claims that he is ‘NOT FAST!’)
He loves working with young people and he loves trail running so combining the two was always on the cards.
In April 2021 Danny started Trail Fam. Following the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, Danny was moved to do something to effect change to improve diversity and give back something tangible for his students and the young people he is passionate about working with, but he could not immediately figure what that was. It was when Danny thought about his experience during lockdown, the fact that he lived in an area which was green with lots of open spaces, compared to the likely experience of students, many of who often lived flats or tower blocks with no easy access to green spaces. He then realised that his love of trail running could be combined with his passion for helping young people and Trail Fam was born.
Danny says ‘I’m incredibly serious about the impact I have on the lives of the young people I work with and TrailFam is my way of having such an impact. Putting the fam front and centre, giving them opportunities to explore the outdoors and claim natural spaces as equals means everything to me and I cannot wait to tell you all about it!’
The work Danny is doing is incredible, and The Start Line Girls would like to thank Danny and his colleagues at Mulberry Academy Shoreditch in East London, for bringing this joy to our young people. The team is doing great work and we're sure this will explode into something really fantastic across London and beyond. And thank you to the students for being brave, trying something new and challenging yourself. You are AMAZING! Be proud of you!
You can follow Trail Fam and all their adventures on Instagram.
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Theme music: Street Festival by Franco Eneiro. Used under licence.
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