Newcastle Frontrunners:
"We provide healthy activities to LGBT people"
by Rui Chen
Russell chatting with interviewer Photo by Rui Chen
Russell Dickinson Deane, a full-time coach who works for The Newcastle Frontrunners Club
The Newcastle Frontrunners Club is warm and friendly running charity based in Newcastle, which aims to provide healthy activities for LGBT people. The Frontrunners founder wished to start a club where people of the LGBT community could meet and partake in activities that did not involve drinking. The club offers both training sessions and race events for running lovers. Although predominantly aimed at LGBT, the club also encourages LGBT friendly runners to join the club,
“We’re an inclusive club and welcome everyone regardless of sexuality as long as you respect this ethos too.”
Pic from Newcastle Frontrunners website. The man first from the right side is Russell.
Russell Dickinson Deane, is one of Frontrunners part-time coaches who met with us to discuss the charity and LGBT in Newcastle.
Origin of the name
The name Frontrunners came from an American novel written in 1974 by Patricia Nell Warren.
The premise of the story is a love affair between a university running star and his coach. The novel achieved mainstream commercial and critical success. It was also the first contemporary book to portray LGBT within sports, something which still struggles with stigmas today.
The frontrunners were created initially by a group of San Francisco based LGBT runners who decided to form a club inspired by the book. Gradually this club became an international organization with the Newcastle Frontrunners being one strand of this global network.
Mutual aid
For the past two years, Newcastle Frontrunners has organized a 5k race in aid of two other LGBT charities located in Newcastle, The Albert Kennedy Trust and Rainbow Home. Both groups provide safe places and support for young LGBT people who are homeless having been rejected by their family.
“Teenagers are particularly vulnerable, with many of them coming out for the first time as well as making the transition to adulthood”
Last year some of the Newcastle Frontrunners’ ran the London Marathon in aid of Rainbow Home. With the marathon and 5k runs combined, Newcastle Frontrunners raised over £1,200 for Rainbow home last year.
In addition to donations, Newcastle Frontrunners is also directly aided by a range of companies in the North East.
“For the past three years Sainsbury in Gosforth has provided a box of fruit to the club every week so that we can enjoy a healthy snack at the end of each race.”
Russell chatting with interviewer Photo by Rui Chen
Great changes happened in Newcastle
With continuous work and cooperation amongst organizations, companies and the council, Russell feels that real change has been achieved over the past twenty years:
“It is quite liberal population now, though there is still a little pocket of people who may be old and over-reactionary.”
A good barometer of this change, Russell states, is Newcastle Pride festival
“When I first started going to Pride twenty years ago, as the parade passed you would get strange looks from passers-by. Contrast that with last year when I took part in the Pride parade, the streets were lined with people, cheering, shouting and waving. There was no animosity, no counter-LGBT marches. It was overwhelmingly positive.”
If you would like to find out more about Newcastle Frontrunners then visit their website, Facebook or twitter:
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