Tubeathon - World Record Holders!
My name is Eitan, I am in Year 13, my last year of A Levels and one of the Head Students at the school. I love completing fundraising challenges, my most recent being the Tubeathon! The aim of the Tubeathon was that by the end of the day all the teams had collectively reached all 271 official and walkable London Underground tube stations on foot.
This was a fundraiser for Lives not Knives, an award-winning youth-led charity that works to prevent knife crime, serious youth violence and school exclusions by engaging, educating and empowering disadvantaged young people to enjoy their lives and improve their future prospects. The fact that this was a youth-led challenge to raise money for the youth in London is very special and with 120 participants who took part, many of us still know the challenges that young people face living in London.
The big day was on Sunday 25th February 2024. 120 young people woke up that morning ready to start their routes all over London. The first group kicked off the challenge at 8:30am, walking the entire Victoria line from Walthamstow Central to Brixton. Throughout the morning all teams began to follow suit with teams walking in Epping, Heathrow, Upminster and Morden (to name a few areas), stations were getting ticked off by the minute. Young people were really able to get a glimpse at areas of London they may have never been to before or better yet, only seen from the underground. By 5.30pm, they confirmed us as the first group ever to collectively walk the whole London Underground tube map in one day!
I want to say a special thank you to the school who then provided us with the venue for our celebration event that evening where we hosted speakers from the Mayor’s Office and the London Assembly who came to congratulate us on our achievement. So far, we have managed to raise over £10,000 for Lives Not Knives and we have been featured on many news outlets including BBC Radio London, BBC news, MyLondon news, Londonist news and live on BBC One.
BBC Interview
There will also be a documentary coming out in April about our success. By organising this event I have learnt that you can do anything if you set your mind, and most importantly, your heart to it. Be resourceful, persistent and confident and you will succeed!