Meet the Derbyshire father and daughter duo who love parkrun

Craig Porter and his daughter Kara, who has Down’s Syndrome, go to parkrun together and he said: “I love taking Kara to parkrun as the team and runners are so friendly and welcoming!

“She's just Kara and likes getting stuck into the warmup routines.

“Kara is 10 now, and has done 22 junior parkruns meaning she has earned her marathon wristband.

“She also has 8 volunteer credits for tailwalking and marshalling, at both parkrun and junior parkrun – I think she's the only marshall I've seen who blows kisses to the runners!”

Parkrun is a valuable and essential public health initiative and the charity want to improve the health and wellbeing of as many people as possible, no matter who they are or where they live.

Junior parkrun has had plenty of benefits for Kara and Craig explained: “I had always enjoyed parkrun and thought junior parkrun would be a good opportunity for her to take part in an activity with me, in a friendly and open environment.

“Junior parkrun not only challenges Kara, but it’s also something she can do independently and is not just following her sister’s path.

“Kara has no issues at junior parkrun since the easy going participation format of parkrun allows her to take part in the same manner as everyone else and she receives the same encouragement and support as the first finishers.

“I think the biggest surprise, and the most fun, was the warm up. The volunteers there are great and cheer her all round the course.

“Kara does warm up routines at school, so she started stretching as soon as we got there.

“Then, one of the volunteers, Brandon, started the group warm up and she found that a lot of fun, especially when I started falling over!”

Parkrun have a community of over 9 million people, and 250,000 weekly participants at their events.

Kara was naturally introduced to parkrun by her father and he said: “Kara first started volunteering when I was a marshal at the local parkrun and thought it would be a good event for her to come along to.

“It was admittedly a bit cold that day, but she enjoyed the attention and clapping the runners as they went by.

“She loves the experience of marshalling with me and is very keen to take part by running, walking and jogging.

“Kara has also been a tail walker at junior parkrun which has the added bonus of an actual fluffy tail to wear and she was very proud of that!”

parkrun will always be free, for everyone, forever and you can find your local course to run, walk or volunteer at www.parkrun.com.