Leicestershire Central England Co-op plays starring role in new National Lottery parkrun video featuring Paralympian Jonnie Peacock MBE
Posted by james brindle | Published: 08/08/2022
Double Paralympic gold medallist Jonnie Peacock MBE has been spotted running around the aisles of a Central England Co-op store in Leicestershire – all part of a new advert promoting The National Lottery’s support for parkrun.
Jonnie was joined by Lorraine Isaac, one of the run directors of the parkrun held at Watermead Country Park in Leicestershire, in the online ad which was filmed recently at the Central England Co-op store in Mountsorrel.
The ad aims to promote parkrun and the fact that, thanks to National Lottery players, £3.6M has been raised for parkrun over the past eight years.
Luke Barrow, Store Manager at Central England Co-op in Rothley Road, Mountsorrel, said the team were happy to welcome the inspirational Jonnie, who secured gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics before swapping his spikes for dancing shoes to be part of Strictly Come Dancing in 2017.
He said: “We were delighted to be part of the filming and welcome Jonnie and Lorraine to the store to promote such a great cause as parkrun, which are helping to get people active and live healthier lifestyles, which is an important thing for us as a co-operative retailer.
“Jonnie was really friendly and was happy to pose for photographs with the team and it was fantastic to support Lorraine as well who is doing such great things with the parkrun at Watermead Country Park.”
Parkrun is a free weekly community event held in parks and open spaces around the world. The initiative, which is supported with funding made possible by National Lottery players, is a positive, welcoming and inclusive experience where there is no time limit to complete the course.
It doesn’t matter if people walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate – the emphasis is on having fun, getting fitter and making friends.
Lorraine, 55, is one of three generations of her family, along with daughter Amie (23) and dad Bob (82), who take part in the 5k parkrun at Watermead Country Park.
She said: “Jonnie joked that he couldn’t run 5km. He said ‘I’m built for speed, not distance’. He’s just a really nice guy – down to earth and happy to chat. A few people stopped him for selfies, and he was just lovely.”
The video can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/-RthldwMtDU
Notes to editors
About Central England Co-operative
Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral and property investment.
Owned by hundreds of thousands of members, its over 8,000 colleagues serve customers across 400 plus trading sites in 20 counties in the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.
Its purpose is to inspire communities to create a sustainable Society for all.
It actively campaigns for the Government to increase sentencing for violent attacks on retail workers and works with FareShare Midlands and hundreds of food banks, generating enough food donations to create over 2.1 million meals for people in need.
The Society embraces inclusivity and equality and is a signed-up member to the Business in the Community (BITC) Race at Work Charter, while it is also fully committed to addressing the impact of climate change and is on track to be Carbon Neutral by 2030.
It invests a percentage of its trading profit into local communities through its Community Dividend Fund scheme which has seen over £175,000 shared out between 116 good causes over the past 12 months.
Central England Co-op was named Leading Co-op of the Year by Co-operatives UK in 2021.
Press office contact: James Brindle, Public Relations Lead
Contact details: email james.brindle@centralengland.coop and telephone 07392 080028.
About Camelot/The National Lottery
● Camelot UK Lotteries Limited is the licensed operator of The National Lottery® and is committed to raising money for National Lottery Good Causes designated by Parliament. Camelot is not responsible for distributing or awarding these funds.
● The National Lottery generates over £30 million each week for National Lottery-funded projects. In total, over £46 billion has now been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 lottery grants in every UK postcode district.
● The National Lottery has awarded over £86 billion in prizes to date and created more than 6,500 millionaires or multi-millionaires since its launch in 1994.
● For further information on Camelot, The National Lottery and its games, please visit: www.camelotgroup.co.uk and www.national-lottery.co.uk
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