826 miles in one year? Why one University of Portsmouth student is running the distance

826 miles may seem an unusual target to run over the space of a year.

To put that into perspective, that’s equivalent to 31.5 marathons or the distance between Portsmouth and Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava.

However, for University of Portsmouth student Ben, this figure represents the 826 years since Richard I handed Portsmouth a royal charter.

Historically, the royal charter represented the acknowledgment of a new town or city within Great Britain. Since the 14th Century, royal charters have been used to grant specific rights or powers to individuals and organisations by the monarchy.

Ben’s hoping to tackle the issue of homelessness in Portsmouth as a way of giving back to the city he loves. Whilst there were 42 rough sleepers in Portsmouth City Council’s last count in November 2017, many homeless charities suspect the actual figure to be much higher.

Homelessness continues to rise in the UK, with an estimated 4677 rough sleepers living on the streets in the government’s last report in Autumn 2018. The government is committed to eliminating rough sleeping by 2027.