Dixons City Academy teacher steps up for charity challenge (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Dixons City Academy teacher steps up for charity challenge

7:00am Monday 11th February 2013 in News

A teacher who raised £30,000 for a HIV hospice in 2012 by cycling around Zambia with Olympic swimmers wants to raise more cash for the facility by running up and down as many stadium steps as possible in 24 hours.

Rob Day, a PE teacher at Dixons City Academy on Ripley Street, Bradford, has already had the go-ahead from Manchester City to run up their Etihad Stadium steps in a bid to raise money for the charity Sport In Action and a HIV/Aids hospice.

It comes after he cycled 280 miles from Livingstone in South Zambia to Lusaka in Central Zambia in 2012 with Rebecca Adlington, the double Olympic champion, Joanne Jackson, Olympic bronze medalist, Ross Davenport, double Commonwealth champion and Melanie Marshall, the most decorated British female athlete ever at a Commonwealth Games.

Mr Day hopes to enlist their support again, but has also got fellow teachers and students helping him on his latest quest which he hopes will raise £5,000, when it takes place in mid-July.

“I saw the YouTube video when people run up these steps in America to train and I thought I had not heard of anyone doing it here and wanted to do something to catch the public’s eye,” he said.

“I thought, ‘why not give it a go’? A Tour De Stade is where you run up all the steps in a sports stadium, so we are looking to run as many stadiums in 24 hours as possible.

“It is a school project looking to raise money again for HIV prevention and awareness in Zambia as well as some children’s local charities.

“I have made contact with a few of our Yorkshire-based sports teams in hope they will let us use their stadiums for this challenge with hopefully a couple of their stars to come on board and join us to raise more awareness and hopefully money as well.

“We want to do stadiums within an hour’s drive of Bradford including Valley Parade, Elland Road and Odsal.

“When I asked Manchester City I expected it to be a no and was generally quite shocked when they said yes. I would quite like us to do a few Premiership grounds.” For more information about the fundraiser, e-mail r.day@dixonsca.com.