Famous Five Join the Revolution for RE:ACT!

A revolution has taken place at RE:ACT, but the people involved were doing it all for charity!

The generous people at the famous Sidley London Revolution event gifted us five places which were quickly snapped up by a quintet of super fit individuals who all wanted to raise money for our cause.

Byron Long-Colley, Shiraz Ziya, Tess Campbell-Bareham, and Natalie Carrier tackled a gruelling half marathon over a tough course around the Marlow and Windsor areas.

The fifth of the famous five, Dutch Holland, cycled the 156.9 miles round-London route in just one day! (instead of the suggested two or three!). 

So, who were our passionate revolutionaries?

Dutch Holland from Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire is a domestic and international RE:ACT responder who has volunteered on many occasions. He’s a 56-year-old army veteran, owns his own audio-visual business, and he’s no stranger to epic bike rides.

During his lifetime of cycling – he says, “for fun!” – he’s done 100 miles around the New Forest, 80 miles around Calais, and the London to Brighton 52-miler 16 times,  though he does admit that the Sidley London Revolution was still a big challenge.

“It most definitely hurt, that’s for sure! It was basically like riding from London to Birmingham and halfway back again. However, I wanted to raise money for RE:ACT because it’s a great charity and I love being part of a charitable community of people who just want to get on with things rather than standing around, watching and waiting,” said Dutch.

Natalie Carrier, from Ludlow in Shropshire wanted to be part of the Sidley event after enjoying her first responder deployments with RE:ACT and realising what  “a great charity” it is.

An operations and software implementation specialist, she has worked some shifts at our partner ConnectAid’s warehouse in Warrington helping sort humanitarian aid supplies for Ukraine and also at Worcester Royal Hospital Accident and Emergency Unit working on surge assistance.

She also volunteered to be a responder at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and this recent work has given her a taste for more. She recently successfully completed our Domestic Responder Course.

“Everyone I have worked alongside at RE:ACT has been brilliant. They are all so welcoming and you immediately feel part of the team. It is a really great organisation with its combination of ex services, blue-light and humanitarian volunteers and I just wanted to be part of it,” said Natalie, 31.

She said her brother Adam, an army veteran, has ensured she was ready to run those gruelling 13.1 miles (21km).

“My brother is a running machine, so he was the perfect coach. At first covering these longer distances was exhausting and there was a period when I kept feeling tired. But by the time it came to the actual event I was ready,” added Natalie.

Shiraz Ziya from Heswall on the Wirral Peninsula is someone who may have found the race less demanding than most. The 33-year-old medical sales representative had already run 14 marathons in places such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Paris, and Turkey.

Shiraz, who has a degree in Biology and a Phd in Orthopaedic Therapy, is obviously not someone who takes life lying down because in between his demanding day job and the love of running he’s also found time to gain his pilot’s licence, qualify as an electrician, do the domestic and international RE:ACT Responder courses and the HEAT training!

His first mission was as part of our Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games’ team, and he is looking forward to being further involved in the future.

“I was delighted to have done the race on behalf of RE:ACT. It’s a community that has already given me so much,” said Shiraz.

Byron Long-Colley, 22, from Dudley in the West Midlands, is, like Shiraz, no stranger to the world of long-distance running.

He has done several half marathons and adventure runs in between studying for a degree in Disaster Management and Emergency Planning at Coventry University. It’s a course which has given him some great skills for his volunteer work with RE:ACT!

Byron has successfully completed both the Domestic and International Responders’ courses and was one of our recent Op Pace responders in Lublin, Poland helping with the distribution of vital aid to Ukraine.

“It was wonderful to be able to do this race and raise money for such a great organisation,” said Byron. “RE:ACT is unique, and it is great to be part of it. I felt a little guilty because I didn’t have time to raise money for them when the Ukraine conflict first broke out, so hopefully I have made up for this with the Sidley event.”

Our final Sidley participant was Tess Campbell-Bareham. Tess is a student at Bath University and is studying physics. A keen runner, she says the London Sidley Revolution seemed the “perfect opportunity” to combine her love of the sport with raising funds for RE:ACT.

For Tess, who recently volunteered for us at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, RE:ACT runs in her blood. Her mother Jan Campbell-Wood is one of our most active volunteers!