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VSA

Now more than ever, we need your help; Every step you take and every pound you raise changes a life- sign up today and run for #TEAMVSA to change the lives of vulnerable children and adults living in Aberdeen/shire.

As a leading social care charity with over 150 years of experience, we have always been at the forefront of providing vital care and support to vulnerable children and adults living across Aberdeen and beyond. We support people through some of the most challenging times they have ever experienced, and we help them take control of their lives for a brighter and better future.

Every day we change lives by supporting a person’s physical, emotional, mental, and social wellbeing through a wide range of health and social care services, such as residential services and community outreach programmes.

We support vulnerable children and adults who are living with a mental health diagnosis, complex additional learning, and support needs, learning disabilities, addiction (drugs and alcohol), loneliness and isolation, living in extreme poverty (including fuel poverty), and living with life-long conditions such as dementia and Parkinson’s.
Despite the tremendous challenges that a child or an adult can face, it is amazing to see that by providing proper support, care, experiences, and opportunities how much it can change a life.

We are delighted that Run Balmoral is set to return in 2025 and we can’t wait to have you join our team.

Founded in 2017 in Northeast Scotland, MISS provides support and resources for individuals experiencing the pain of miscarriage and early baby loss. Our mission is to create a confidential space for anyone affected, helping them find support and understanding so they feel less alone.

We also aim to break the stigma surrounding miscarriage by raising awareness in the community and among healthcare professionals. We provide information and support packs to assist in this effort.

If you would like to run for MISS, please contact Lez by emailing: fundraising@miss-support.org.uk

Clan Cancer Support

Clan is here for anyone impacted by a cancer diagnosis. We provide emotional and physical support to people affected by cancer, their family, carers and friends.

Our services are freely offered to all from pre-diagnosis and diagnosis through treatment and beyond at support and wellbeing centres located across the north-east of Scotland and Northern Isles.

We are delighted to be a charity partner for Run Balmoral 2025 and add this event to our fundraising calendar. This is a great opportunity for runners who are keen to support us to get on board to be part of the Clan.

If you are interested in running for Clan at Run Balmoral then please contact the fundraising team at fundraising@clancancersupport.org or 01224 647000.

Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA)

Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) is the People’s Helicopter – saving and improving lives in every corner of Scotland, 365 days a year.

As the country’s only charity-funded air ambulance, SCAA relies entirely on public donations to fuel its life-saving flights that bring help and hope to those suffering serious injury or illness wherever and whenever required.

An integral part of Scotland’s frontline emergency response network, SCAA is able to reach 90% of Scotland’s population within 25 minutes, including remote and rural areas that are difficult to access by road.

People can get sick or have accidents anywhere at anytime. But in Scotland there are places where urgent medical help cannot reach people. And when lives are at risk, every minute matters… because people do die when urgent medical help doesn’t get there in time.

SCAA is a proven life-saving service that needs your support – to keep it flying to those in desperate need of an air ambulance, when speed and urgent medical attention are critical factors in their chance of survival.

If you would like to run for SCAA, please contact Caryn Whitelaw during office hours:-
T. 0300 123 1111 / E. c.whitelaw@scaa.org.uk

To find out more about SCAA please visit our website www.scaa.org.uk.

Poppy Scotland

Since 1921 Poppyscotland has been supporting Scotland’s ex-Servicemen, women and their families. Whether a veteran is struggling with a life-changing battlefield injury, psychological trauma, financial hardship, homelessness or has turned to substance abuse as a way to cope, we are here to help.

Charity Registration No. SC014096

www.poppyscotland.org.uk

Find out more about charity fundraising

Charlie House

Charlie House is a local charity which supports babies, children and young people with complex disabilities and life-limiting conditions, and their families, in the North-east of Scotland.

In this region alone there are more than 1,600 children who fit these criteria. Established in 2011, Charlie House is committed to directly supporting these children and their families. We do this through our free services including: our accessible and inclusive activities which are suitable for the whole family, our annual activity short break, and the provision of practical and emotional support at home and in the community. The Charlie House Children’s Community Nurse is based at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and provides support for families, helps them transition from a long hospital stay, and supports the child and their family on their life journey.

The Charlie House vision has always been to have a purpose-built facility in Aberdeen to support families in the North-east of Scotland. We launched an £8 million Big Build Appeal in November 2018 to develop a purpose-build support centre in Aberdeen which will offer planned and emergency respite, palliative and end of life care for children as well as accessible areas for play, socialisation and therapeutic support. Together with the people of the North-east we can make this dream a reality.

If you would like to pull on your trainers and run for Charlie House please email fundraise@charliehouse.org.uk or call 01224 313333. Your contribution will go a long way to helping the families we currently work alongside and to reaching out to more families, offering them vital support when they need it most.

Visit our website for more information

Kayleigh's Wee Stars

Kayleigh’s Wee Stars is a North-East charity based in Oldmeldrum, set up in 2012 by Jonathan and Anna Cordiner after losing their 2 year old daughter Kayleigh to terminal illness.

At that time, they met many families where there was a child with a terminal illness, but who were also coping with additional challenging situations – parents facing unemployment or financial crisis.

Money is the last thing parents should have to worry about at such an impossible time, and so they established Kayleigh’s Wee Stars to provide financial support to families based in Scotland where there is a child with a terminal diagnosis.

Families use grants from Kayleigh’s Wee Stars to make memories through a special family holiday, to buy specialist equipment to help their child or to relieve financial strain to allow parents to take time off work and enjoy precious time with their child.

Since being established, Kayleigh’s Wee Stars has raised over £1 million and helped hundreds of families. But recently, like many charities, it has seen an increase in applications from families facing financial crisis. Your fundraising will help us to continue to offer vital support to relieve their financial burden during what is already, an impossible situation.

Over the last 12 years, Kayleigh’s Wee Stars has built a strong community of runners and cyclists who actively support and fundraise for the charity. We’d love you to join us and be part of the KWS running team at RunBalmoral.

Please contact info@kayleighsweestars.co.uk for more information and to sign up. You’ll receive a fundraising pack to help you to fundraise for us in return for your free entry. More details are also on our website https://www.kayleighsweestars.co.uk/events/

We look forward to seeing you there.

University of Aberdeen Development Trust

Support Women’s Health Research at the University of Aberdeen

We are hoping to attract a team of enthusiastic runners to be part of the effort to raise £1 million for maternal health research at the University. Working closely with NHS colleagues, our team of researchers are dedicated to patient led research that will vastly improve the care of women and their health from pregnancy, motherhood and beyond. Your support will help us advance our research in areas that affect many families including fertility issues, maternal nutrition & social issues, miscarriage & still birth, and post-natal complications.

If you are interested in finding out more information or would like to run for the University of Aberdeen Development Trust at Run Balmoral, please contact Lynne Black on 01224 272087 or at lynne.black@abdn.ac.uk. We have a number of free places on offer in the 5k and 10k races for those wishing to fundraise for the University of Aberdeen Development Trust.

One Stop Waste

The Water Bottle Recycling Journey

At the end of your race, when you chuck that plastic bottle in the recycling bin, it’s not the end, but that start of our Recycling Journey.

Your Run Balmoral Water bottles (made from PET type 1 plastic) will be bulked into a large enclosed container on the Estate.

The journey is detailed in the following steps:

They will be taken to a purpose-built Material Recycling Facility (MRF) south of Aberdeen
At the MRF the bottles will be sorted, contamination removed, and made into Bales for shipping to a UK reprocessor.
The Bales are split and bottles shredded into flakes which are washed clean
The flakes are then dried and bulked into bags and shipped to a production facility.
These flakes can now be used in the manufacturer of new water bottles, maybe will you will be holding part of the same water bottle at Run Balmoral 2021!!

This year Run Balmoral are working with One Stop Waste Solutions, a local company which helps business improve their environmental performance by reducing waste, recycling and energy recovery throughout Aberdeen City and Shire. For more information on how they can help your business, contact their waste specialist for a free Recycling Audit at 01224 782050 or www.onestopwaste.com

Friends of the Neonatal Unit

Friends of the Neonatal Unit is the official charity of Aberdeen Maternity Hospital’s Neonatal Unit for premature and sick babies.

Having a baby is a life changing experience for all, however not all new parents are lucky enough to take their new baby home soon after birth and show off to friends and family. Unfortunately some babies are born either too sick or too soon and are in need of some extra special care in the neonatal unit, no matter the outcome there are often many challenges the families and babies face.

Since 1984 Friends of the Special Nursery has helped hundreds of families through these difficult times. Many will only spend a few days in the unit, while others need to stay longer to receive specialist care. As this can be a difficult time emotionally, physically and financially for any family, we try and support when we can. Some of the things we fund include:

Giraffe incubators
Counselling sessions
Breast pumps
Staff training
Upgrades to neonatal unit
Camera equipment to keep pictures of special moments
Bursary’s for parents

All money raised for Friends of the Neonatal Unit is used to benefit babies and their families during their stay in the neonatal unit, no matter how long or short their stay might be.

Alzheimer Scotland

Alzheimer Scotland provides a wide range of specialist services for people with dementia and their carers. We offer personalised support services, community activities, information and advice, at every stage of the dementia journey. Join our team and help make sure no one faces dementia alone.

All our runners will receive the best support from us, including:

A running vest
Fundraising advice, including a fundraising pack
Support with your training
We’ll be there to cheer you on the day

Please contact Leah Cranney on lcranney@alzscot.org or call 0131 243 1497 to register today.

https://www.alzscot.org/fundraising/running/3955_run_balmoral_2018

Sue Ryder Dee View Court

Based in Aberdeen and built in 2003, Sue Ryder Dee View Court is Scotland’s only specialist neurological care centre and the place 24 people currently call home.

We care for people aged between 18 and 65 living with long-term and degenerative neurological conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington’s Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, as well as acquired brain injuries through things such as road traffic accidents or a stroke.

It is estimated that one million people in Scotland are living with a neurological condition that has a significant impact on their lives. That’s nearly one in five.

Of this one million, approximately 1,000 people with very severe needs have already spent years in a hospital bed or are living in unsuitable settings such as in older people’s care homes or psychiatric wards.

So you can imagine that, as Scotland’s only purpose-built neurological care centre – with just 24 spaces – demand for a place is high. Our waiting list continues to grow and, because of the long-term residency of the people who live at Dee View Court, bedrooms rarely become available.

We desperately want – and need – to do more which is why we launched a £3.9 million Capital Appeal last year to create 20 more bedrooms and help more people get the expert care they deserve

It’s a big project, and one we cannot do alone. We need you to run with, and for, us to help reach our target by August 2019.

To join Team Sue Ryder contact Rebecca: Rebecca.Buchan@SueRyder.org, call 07845 517951 or visit www.sueryder.org/DeeViewAppeal for more information.

The Cornerstone Foundation

Transforming Lives

The Cornerstone Foundation is the charitable arm of Cornerstone. Both work hand-in-hand to ensure people with disabilities and support needs can enjoy a valued life – the life they choose.

The work done by The Cornerstone Foundation will ensure that people supported by Cornerstone are able to play an active part in their community. With your help, we can give the people we support a home that suits their needs, equipment that enables them to have a great quality of life, and opportunities to build new friendships.

By choosing to run for The Cornerstone Foundation, you will make a difference to the lives of people in your community; from a little girl in Aberdeen wanting to be able to join her family at the dinner table, to a young man in Dundee wanting to earn a living for himself, or an elderly couple in Moray who need some extra support to continue living in their own home together.

If you would like to secure your place in one of the races, then don’t delay – get in touch with Louise on 01224 256023 or louise.mackay@cornerstone.org.uk if you’d like more details.

SensationALL

SensationALL provide therapeutic activities and specialist support (including training) for individuals with disabilities or ‘multiple support needs’ (MSN), their families and associated professionals.

There are many terms used to describe people’s differences and disabilities but we prefer the term ‘Multiple Support Needs’ (MSN), as it’s used to recognise the many factors that affect the life of an individual and their family.

Most of our service users have neurodevelopmental conditions, meaning that there is a disability in the functioning of the brain, commonly resulting in physical and sensory impairment, learning difficulties and medical needs. This includes conditions like autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), learning deficits, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and dyslexia. These can often lead to challenges with information processing, communicating effectively, memory and comprehension, behaviour and self-regulation and sensory perceptions/experiences- all of which have a significant impact on their ability to learn and socialise.

SensationALL is so-called because we believe that individuals with MSN and their families should ALL have access to appropriate specialist services, without restrictions on age, location or diagnosis. This includes equal access to leisure activities and opportunities that can develop learning, friendships and promote positive mental health as part of lifelong learning and growth. We aim to empower our young people and their families with the confidence, social and life skills to achieve their full potential.

If you want to run either the 5k or 10k for SensationALL then please contact info@sensationall.org.uk and if you want to donate to the charity please visit our Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/sensationall/friend-search

FOS Group

The FOS Group has been formed by engineering experts Apollo and offshore construction specialists AquaTerra to give our clients in the North Sea a simpler, smarter alternative to delivering projects on and offshore for the oil and gas business.

With access to over 100 engineers and designers along with 150 offshore construction specialists FOS offers our clients reduced risk, better value and fit for purpose solutions working across topsides, marine, subsea and onshore segments.

Find out more about the FOS Group Secondary School’s 2.5k race.

Walking With The Wounded

The Balmoral Challenge, presented by Artemis, is a unique, team-building event for your team of four to take on one of three stunning routes across the mountainous Balmoral Estate on 23 June 2018 to mark Armed Forces Day.

The event starts and finishes in front of the castle, thanks to the gracious permission of Her Majesty The Queen and raises money for Walking With The Wounded’s programmes supporting ex servicemen and women with mental, physical or social injuries such as homelessness to get back into society and employment.

Every team that takes part can support a veteran back into independence.

Come and meet, hear from and walk alongside Walking With The Wounded’s inspirational beneficiaries from across Scotland who will be taking part in this uplifting and motivational event. There is a route for all abilities and you’ll be amazed what you can achieve together.

“What an experience, the beautiful Balmoral Estate is a sight to behold and to drive through the gates is quite special. I have never walked so far in my life and am very proud of myself and my team for what we achieved that day! To have met some of the beneficiaries of the charity was an honour. I’m so glad I was part of this event.” Maria Norman, Stirling Council

Find out more, watch a video, see testimonials and sign up to this incredible event go to https://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/support-the-walk/balmoral-challenge/

Friends of Anchor

Friends of ANCHOR is a charity where every penny stays local to benefit those fighting a cancer diagnosis or blood-related disease in the North-east.

On average, around 300 cancer and haematology patients attend the ANCHOR Unit, ARI, wards and clinics each and every day.

Since the charity began in 1997, Friends of ANCHOR has been passionately committed to North-east cancer care – with crucial investments into diagnostic and surgical equipment, patient wellbeing services and local, ground-breaking cancer research project led by top clinicians at the University of Aberdeen.

This is only made possible thanks to the remarkable generosity of organisations and individuals who champion the cause by raising awareness and fundraising.

Join us in directly supporting the ANCHOR Unit, to ensure cancer and haematology patients in our region receive the best possible care, treatment and support.

Every penny you raise will help make a direct difference as all the charity’s running costs are fully covered by Balmoral Group.

Sign up today to stand UNITED AGAINST CANCER with Friends of ANCHOR.

Please call 01224 859170 or email foa@balmoral.co.uk

Diabetes UK

We are the UK’s leading diabetes charity that cares for, connects with and campaigns on behalf of every person affected by or at risk of diabetes.

Diabetes is the most potentially devastating – and fastest-growing – health crisis of our time.

There are currently 4 million people in the UK living with diabetes, and 11.5 million more at increased risk of getting Type 2 diabetes. Those diagnosed face the risk of life-changing, and life-limiting, complications, unless they are given the very best care and the support they need to manage their condition well. As a society we need to work together now – and take action now – to fund critical research, improve healthcare and treatment, and prevent yet more people developing this potentially life-threatening condition.

As the UK’s leading diabetes charity, our mission is that by bringing people together to work in partnership, we will support those living with diabetes, prevent Type 2 diabetes, make research breakthroughs, and ultimately find a cure.

To run for Diabetes UK please contact karen.moore@diabetes.org.uk or tel 07990 003789

Saturday 4 April 2026

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Sunday 5 April 2026

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Support Women’s Health Research at the University of Aberdeen