We spoke to Renae Mann, Executive Director of Services at the Refugee Council and part of our London Landmarks Half Marathon running team, about the challenges of her role and how she approaches self-care in the face of tragedy.

Renae Mann has a lot of knotty questions to work out. As Executive Director of Services she’s responsible for over 200 staff and 300 volunteers, working with people seeing asylum and refugees as they begin to rebuild their lives in the safety of the UK.

Renae pounds the pavement in the dark most mornings and runs in the park during daylight at the weekends. She says that running clears her head, it is a place to work through dilemmas, tune out to music, or tune in to new ideas by listening to books. “I love a long run surrounded by green spaces,” she says.

She was delighted to be given the opportunity to run for the Refugee Council as part of the London Landmarks Half Marathon Team, so helping to raise money to support our work—and the route, across Tower Bridge and along the Thames, is stunning.

“Running grounds me; it’s where I work through knotty questions and dilemmas.”

Supporting refugees can be difficult, especially for those who may have been through this situation themselves in the past. “This is challenging work,” Renae explains. “Bearing witness to the dehumanising and often brutal experiences that drove people to seek safety in the UK and while seeking sanctuary or settling in the UK can be harrowing, especially as many of our people have lived experience of that same journey.”

She sees her role being to enable her team to reflect on that experience, the privilege and the pain, so that they can focus on what refugees and people seeking asylum need us to achieve with them while maintaining their wellbeing.