From the morning of the 26th until the next morning on the 27th March, Oldham Sixth Form College held their 13th annual Olympathon rasing thousands for charity.

Oldham Sixth Form College sports centre – credit – google maps

The Olympathon is a charity event which started in 2012. It is organised by level 3 extended sport students every single year as it is part of their course.

Sport student, Yunus Kasim expressed how much he enjoyed being creative whilst organsing  “I really enjoyed it… I was part of a marketing team, so i got to be in some videos and I helped get donations as well”.

Participants take part in various sports for 26.2 hours straight, replicating the distance of a marathon, mixed with sports which take place in the Olympics, this makes the name “Olympathon”.

Oldham Sixth form teacher, Amy Mayal-Moses spoke on how much the sport department looks foward to doing this every year by saying “it’s the highlight of the year”

This year students were able to raise £5,602 from 264 different donors, setting a new record amount for a second consecutive year. 

That money has all gone to Brain Tumour research because two students who were involved in organising the event had experienced family members who had previously suffered from a brain tumour, the college thought it would be fitting to help those close to them. 

Organising manager and also student, Lewis Aston said “two member of our class, myself included have been directly affected with family that have suffered from brain tumour, i think its very improtant it reflects in our event we’re running, we’re happy to rais ethat money for charity as well as spreading awarness”. 

Credit – Owen Cropper

the years however, past students on the same course have raised tens of thousands for a variety of charities, including Cancer research UK, Giddos Gift and Motor Neurone disease research.

Here is an infographic showing how much has money has been raised. 2018 – 2021 is unavailable as the Olympathon did not happen in these years

The Olympathon is an event like no other, this is because students are put into random teams, where they compete in sport and take part in bonding activites together. This means they haev to build chemistry so that they can win the entire event.

Speaking on this Amy Mayal-Moses said “people making friends, meeting new people and trying sport they wouldn’t otherwise had tried”.