Red Sky Foundation sees Great North Run places cut as organisers say they're being fair
A dispute has erupted between Sunderland’s Red Sky Foundation and Great North Run organisers after allocated running places for 2026 were cut to almost a quarter.
In September’s race the charity, who support children and their families with heart conditions and disease across the North East, purchased a platinum package enabling 320 Red Sky runners to take part in the event to raise vital funds for the charity.
The charity say they’ve only been offered a silver package for 2026, allowing just 85 Red Sky runners to take part through their allocated charity places.
Organisers of the Great North Run say this is down to unprecedented demand and the need to be fair to their other 900 charity partners.
They also say the charity were informed the allocation for this year’s event “wouldn’t necessarily” be replicated in future runs and that 85 is a return to their previous allocation.
The Great North Run is one of the Red Sky Foundation’s biggest fundraisers with this year’s event raising more than £170,000. The money was used to support a range of local cardiac causes including equipping police cars with life-saving defibrillators.
The charity said they had a total of 800 runners in this year’s race after buying up surplus places from other charities allocations as well as independent runners.
Sergio Petrucci, founder of the Red Sky Foundation said: “We see the Great North Run as a fantastic platform for charities like ours. Over the past five years, our participation has grown significantly from just 15 runners in 2021 to 800 runners last year.
“We are incredibly disappointed to be in this position where we are having to let down the hundreds of children and adults who supported Red Sky Foundation in 2025, and to inform them that we do not have places available for them in 2026.
“Our supporters raised more than £170,000 for Red Sky Foundation in 2025. This vital funding helped contribute towards the donation of 140 defibrillators to every police vehicle across Durham Constabulary. It also supported our hardship fund, which is currently being relied upon by many families across the North East while their loved ones are in hospital receiving cardiac care.”
Organisers of the Great North Run stressed the decision was simply down to demand and fairness to other participating charities.
A Great North Run spokesman said: “Demand for the 45th Great North Run next September is the biggest we’ve ever seen, with the event hugely oversubscribed.
“For the 2025 staging of the event, Red Sky were allocated more places than previous years, with clear guidance given that this wouldn’t necessarily be replicated in future.
“For 2026 Red Sky have been offered the same number of places (85) as in previous years, due to unprecedented demand for Great North Run charity places.
“Unfortunately, there are therefore hundreds of charities who haven’t been able to access their desired number of charity places, and so this isn’t isolated to Red Sky, however we try to be fair to all 900 of our charity partners.”
Red Sky representatives said the situation was compounded by a failure to secure any places in the 2026 Junior and Mini Great North Run events.
An email sent from the charity to Red Sky runners said: “Unfortunately, it breaks our heart to share with you all that Red Sky Foundation has not secured any places in the Junior and Mini Great North Run in 2026. Despite extensive efforts and discussions with the event organiser, we have exhausted all possible avenues to secure places.”
Red Sky bosses claimed the failure to secure places was linked to complaints over being “too big and too noisy” - which is disputed by Great North Run organisers.
While accepting complaints were received about “a charity”, a spokesman for the Great North Run did not name the organisation or the nature of the complaint and stressed the failure to secure places was once again due to demand.
The GNR spokesman said: “The 2026 Junior & Mini Great North Run sold out in record time, six months earlier than the previous year, which significantly limited the number of charity places available. We are exploring options to increase the event capacity in the future.
“There were various complaints about a charity’s activation at the 2025 Junior & Mini Great North Run, however it is not appropriate to comment any further on stakeholder feedback.”
Mr Petrucci said: “We have tried to work constructively with the event organisers to better understand the nature of the complaints raised. While we absolutely respect their right to take action, the refusal to share clarity around the source or detail of those complaints has made the situation extremely difficult to navigate.
“Having said all of this, we have not lost sight of our mission. Our focus is now firmly on other regional running events where we can continue to engage our community, including the Sunderland City Runs, where we are pleased to have charity places available.
“For children who want to support our work, we would love to see families join us at the Sunderland Big 3K, and for adults looking for a bigger challenge, we have charity spaces available for the Sunderland Half Marathon.”
The 2025 Great North Run saw 60,000 runners take on the iconic 13.1 mile route from Newcastle to South Shields, raising tens of millions of pounds for good causes.
A Great North Run spokesman said: “We've worked positively and constructively with thousands of charities across four decades and will continue to do so as we plan for the 2026 Great North Run, where over £25 million pounds will be raised for good causes.”