Rory Finch is running Ramathon and raising £10,000 for disadvantaged young people

Rory Finch is a sport and exercise therapist who grew up in Colchester and currently lives in Sheffield. While he’s now the successful founder and owner of sports physiotherapy clinic Made to Move, life hasn’t always been so smooth for Rory. This June, he will be running the Derbion Ramathon with a group of friends to raise money for Endeavour Youth - a charity similar to the one that helped him turn his own life around 10 years ago.

Rory’s teenage years came with some difficult challenges. After landing estranged from his mother at the age of 11 and his father passing away at the age of 17, he was placed in supported housing, along with his younger brother. However, he received a lot of support from a charity called Nacro Services, an organisation that he credits with helping him become the person he is today.

When Rory first got started with them, he was working as a carpenter. This was a job he had been doing since he left school at 16, and he wasn’t feeling very hopeful or excited about his future. What he’d always loved was sports, such as boxing, but a lack of access to quality physiotherapy had meant he hadn’t been able to compete.

However, fortnightly sessions with a mentor from Nacro Services helped Rory reflect on what he wanted from life and he eventually gained the confidence to return to education. He got a place at Leeds Beckett University and completed his undergraduate degree in 2018, followed by his Masters in 2021, making him the first person in his family to finish tertiary education.

He remembers that his mentor pushed him really hard and made him question his beliefs about what he thought was or wasn’t possible for him. Receiving that level of support has motivated him to raise thousands of pounds over the years for Endeavour Youth, a Sheffield-based charity that helps younger people gain confidence. Last year, Rory and his friends raised £5,000 and this year they’re aiming for £10,000.

As well as for fundraising, Rory uses events like Ramathon to reconnect with his group of friends from university. Though they live all over the country these days, they’ve met up for events like Run For All’s Yorkshire 10 Mile and Sheffield 10K, as well as the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge. The team are also looking forward to a multi-activity day in the Peak District, where they’ll be cycling, climbing, and abseiling, and the Lisbon Marathon, all to raise money for Endeavour Youth.

If you’re thinking, “how does he have the energy for all this?!”, you definitely wouldn’t be the only one! Rory says that his motivation for running and other fitness challenges comes from a deep desire to push himself further than he ever thought he could go. In many ways, this mirrors how he went further in his education and career than he previously assumed would be possible for him.

The advice that Rory would give any young person who’s feeling hopeless or lacks family support is to reflect on where you want to be someday, and then to go ahead and take the leap of faith that will help you get there. He isn’t a big believer in pure luck – his philosophy is that you need to put yourself out there to open yourself to opportunities for lucky breaks.

With that said, he still understands, through his lived experience, that even just one person believing in a young person can make all the difference to their success. If you’d like to help Rory on his mission to raise money for Endeavour Youth, check out his JustGiving page here.