The Founder and Chairman of Wakefield based SingleMuslim.com and humanitarian charity Penny Appeal Adeem Younis, joined 40,000 others to run the London Marathon at the weekend, to raise £100,000 for a unique cause: to raise money for people around the world, too poor to afford a wedding.
This was Adee
m’s first attempt at a marathon, and he was delighted that he did better than expected. “The crowds were amazing, shouting out and spurring me on, this is Britain at its best. It doesn’t matter what faith, colour, nationality you are, there is real camaraderie, it certainly made me proud to be British. I think I’ve now caught the bug as I will definitely be running again next year!”
Adeem has spent almost 20 years helping people get married, since he launched SingleMuslim.com aged just 19, facilitating over 50,000 marriages during that time, from the 2 million people registered to find love.
“We all know the difficulties of finding a partner, but it’s hard to imagine how challenging this is for people around the world who struggle in poverty stricken countries,” said Adeem. “These people do not have the means to get married, which is an important part of the Muslim faith, as many of these young people were orphaned as children. So this year, I have set myself a target, along with Penny Appeal, to launch the campaign ‘Say I do’ to help most in need communities around the world
The first of these marriages took place in early January and Adeem headed to Pakistan as guest of honour at the wedding of Mohammed Safeer and Basri Bi.
“Basri has been supported by Penny Appeal under our Orphan Programme having lost her parents at a young age,” Adeem added. “Mohammed too lost his father whilst he was very young, leaving the couple with no means of getting married. It was a real pleasure for me to be able to help them start their new life together.”
Since January, Adeem has raised enough to pay for 25 weddings, so is well on target to reach his target by the end of the year.
If you would like to donate: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/100marriagechallenge
