The recent Instagram trend that involves running 5km, donating £5 and tagging 5 friends to do the same on an Instagram story has raised a huge £4 million so far for the National Health Service.
This challenge came about due to the huge economic and physical strain on the NHS and its amazing workers caused by the ongoing global pandemic of corona virus. The challenge shows just exactly how powerful the influence of social media has on the world and this is an example of the positive influence it has, as the donations will be used to buy more equipment and more testing kits, helping the fight against Covid19. There have been over 400,000 runners globally and many have also said that the simple challenge of running has benefited their mental health positively.
The Instagram account behind the challenge is called ‘run.for.heroes’. They have reposted a number of famous faces that have been getting involved especially those in the sporting industry, big names such as Jessica Ennis-Hill, Denise Lewis and Mo Farah have encouraged their followers to take part.
However, the challenge has some controversy, there has been a lot of backlash against virgin (the website used to donate the money) and in particular Richard Branson as it has been revealed that for every donation to the NHS (through virgin money giving) a percentage of the money goes to virgin media. The CEO of the company, Richard Branson has a net worth of $4.1 billion and many are criticising him for taking some of the money when the donation is for a great cause.
