Lahiru Perera's Midnight Marathon Page

On the 16th July 2022, I'll be 'tearing down the tarmac' as i set out to run the length of Heathrow's runway in the spirit of raising money for a great cause. The Heathrow Community Trust.

Heathrow Community Trust (HCT) is an independent grant making trust providing much needed

funding to communities around Heathrow airport since 1996. In the last 3 years, HCT has awarded

over £1.5m in grants to community groups. HCT is a small charity driven to use their grant making to

support impactful community groups, committed to their vision of happy, healthy local communities

where everyone has the opportunity to live a rewarding and fulfilled life, and the value of giving

something back to your community is recognised. HCT’s funding comes from donations from

Heathrow Airport Limited and other Team Heathrow companies, noise fines, and fundraising

activities like the Midnight Marathon.

One example of a project HCT has funded via the Projects for Young People grant stream is The east

to west Trust who were awarded a grant for their Emerge project which supports young people

admitted to A&E departments due to self-harm injury or attempted suicide. The grant supported

provision at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, where the Trust were able to have volunteers working

three nights a week supporting 154 young people aged 10-25 who were in a mental health crisis

across 2 years. The Trust also expanded their community provision to be able to support young

people once they left hospital.