London Gatwick helps provide more than 1,600 breakfasts for local school children through support of Run Gatwick

London Gatwick has helped raise more than £10,000 for local charities, including helping to provide 1,600 healthy breakfasts for disadvantaged school children, after the airport donated 200 charity relay places for last weekend’s Run Gatwick. 

The 5km charity relay required each team of two to raise funds for Magic Breakfast - a charity delivering free breakfasts to school children facing hunger every day.  

The Run Series event, which this year also offered a 10km race option, took runners closer to a live airfield than any other running event in the UK, with the route travelling along Perimeter Road South, adjacent to London Gatwick’s main runway. 

A number of staff from London Gatwick ran in support of one of the airport’s official charity partners - including Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (SASH Charity), and Gatwick TravelCare.  

Gatwick also sponsored the Racecrew - a group of volunteers who were marshalling, manning the bag drop and water stations, and setting up the event village. 

Melanie Wrightson, Stakeholder Engagement Manager, London Gatwick said: “We were delighted to sponsor the fantastic Run Gatwick once again. The event is not only great fun for participants, spectators and volunteers, but is a brilliant way for London Gatwick to support our local community and help raise vital funds for some important charities. 

“Congratulations to everyone who took part, but a special thank you to all those who chose to raise money for Gatwick’s official charity partners, and to those who used one of the 200 charity relay places donated by the airport to support Magic Breakfast and make a difference to vulnerable children in the local Gatwick area.”  

David Kelly, Event Director, Run Gatwick said: "We were thrilled to extend our long community partnership with London Gatwick even further this year, by being given permission to run alongside the live runway at the UK’s second largest airport, making it a truly unique and exhilarating aviation themed running experience that supports wellbeing, community engagement and important local charity fundraising. 

"Thank you to the fantastic London Gatwick team for running and raising money for vital local charities, cheering, marshalling and supporting us through the enthusiastic army of volunteer Racecrew.” 

Sustainability was a key focus of this year’s Run Gatwick. Water was provided in recyclable paper cups and sourced by SES Water, with their engineers providing drinking water along the route from the domestic water supply, and from their specialist tanker at the finish. Run Gatwick, working in partnership with SES Water, eliminates the use of 24,000 single-use plastic bottles. 

London Gatwick also sponsored the East Grinstead leg of the recent Mid Sussex Marathon in April. The three-day event, which included sections in Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill, saw a number of Gatwick staff taking part and raising money for charities.

Supporting local charities forms part of London Gatwick’s sustainability policy – Decade of Change – and since 2015, the airport has raised more than £1 million for its official charity partners. 

Gatwick is investing in its long-term future and is preparing a planning application to bring the airport’s Northern Runway into regular use, for departures only, alongside its Main Runway. This low-impact plan will improve resilience, reduce delays, and provide a significant boost to the national and regional economy by supporting trade, tourism and new jobs.