Awards for coach and founder of Morecambe running group

Stuart Nevin has scooped Active Lancashire’s Lancaster district award for Coach of the Year and the individual award for Contribution to Active Communities.

His Morecambe Community Runners have also won the group award for Contribution to Active Communities.

They hope to bag the Lancashire awards in all three categories at a ceremony on November 18 at Ewood Park, Blackburn Rovers home.

These awards come just months after Morecambe Community Runners became the regional winner of the UK’s Community of the Year Awards.

Stuart founded the Runners in October 2019, beginning their first Couch to 5K programme in January 2020.

“A lot of local people don’t have the funds to join a proper running group so I set up one for free to try and improve health and wellbeing in the community,” Stuart said.

Stuart has run all this life, following in his dad’s footsteps who was a marathon runner.

“I used to run alongside him and did my first half marathon when I was ten.”

A freelance fitness instructor, Stuart has lived in Morecambe for 23 years and also runs Poulton Park Community Football Club.

The Runners meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 6.30pm at the Battery and recently recorded a record attendance of 83 people.

There’s no fitness or age restrictions. The youngest runner is eight and the oldest, 76.

Families often participate too.

They run along Morecambe Promenade with most working towards a Couch to 5K medal.

A graduates group run 5-6K twice weekly.

Recently, a man recovering from a hip replacement operation described the group as ‘awesome’ after it supported him to complete a 5K run, and a woman who gave up running

almost ten years ago after her mother’s death, credited them for her signing up for the London Marathon.

The Runners recently received a donation from The Well which helps those suffering from drug and alcohol addiction in Morecambe, in thanks for their support for people recovering from addiction, alcoholism and depression.

Said Stuart: “Our motto is no-one gets left behind. We can provide tremendous help and can change people’s lives.”