In January, Phil braved sub-zero temperature to take on notoriously tough 108-mile race along the Pennine Way to fundraise for Refugees at Home. Facing snow, exhaustion, and hunger, he finished the Montane Winter Spine Challenger South in an incredible 55 hours and 25 minutes.

Phil, a professor at the University of Huddersfield, has spent the majority of his career working in the fields of housing and migration, something which inspired him fundraise for Refugees at Home.

He said: “I’ve had the privilege of working with people who ended up classified as refugees in one way or another for over 25 years.”

“It has become more difficult than at any point in history for a refugee to restart their lives in exile. Not because they don’t want to, far from it, because the system makes it hard. If refugees are given a place to stay, they can look for work, they can make connections, they can access the same rights as the rest of us.”

All participants in the race have just 60 hours to get from Edale in Derbyshire, race through moors and national parks, and reach the finish line in North Yorkshire – something which requires serious preparation.

“I’ve been running every day since May 2020 so I know I can run on tired legs,” said Phil. “From August last year I started building up to running between 50 and 70 miles a week, and then in November and December I was also running 25 miles on both Saturdays and Sundays to get my legs ready to take the pain and recovery time.”

“On the race you’ve got to carry everything you’re going to use, including emergency equipment, spare kit and food, so you have to learn how to run with quite a heavy pack on your back. As well as  doing hill training and speed work there were a lot of early mornings and night runs just to get used to the conditions”

His preparation paid off, and Philip finished the race in an incredible 55 hours and 25 minutes.

“The race went really well,” he said. “The first day was beautiful. I just found myself running with a smile on my face thinking ‘I’ve got a lot of long distance to go here, at least, I’ve got this beautiful landscape to look at. And then you climb up to the top of the Kinder Scout moorland and it just got really deep snow which continued almost all the way to the top of North Yorkshire.”

“The hardest thing, really, is just making sure you’ve got enough food. You’ve got to keep putting fuel in the tank otherwise everything comes to an end – you stop thinking clearly, and your body stops moving properly.”

Thanks to Philip’s efforts, he’s raised over £850 for Refugees at Home, helping us to provide even more to support refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK. He’s hoping to go back to the event in 2026 and run the full Spine which is 268 miles.

You can donate to Phil’s fundraising page here.

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