Toby Mead is fundraising
A Message of Hope
My wife and I are running a half marathon for the first time officially to raise money and awareness for the Webber Street Day Centre. This nonprofit organisation operates a day centre in Waterloo for people experiencing homelessness. They welcome up to 70 guests daily, providing relief from life on the streets and assistance in taking the first steps out of homelessness. The needs of the homeless can be vast and complex. The centre uniquely seeks to address their emotional, physical and spiritual needs with a Christ-centred focus.
Please support us, so we can help the needy and provide hot meals, relief, and care, as we complete this half marathon.
The half marathon is taking place on Saturday 9th May 2026. We will be sure to publish our finishing times for you all.
Our Story
My wife is a seasoned runner, but running did not come naturally to me. In 2020, I weighed 165kg (26 stone, yes you saw the number right!) and I struggled to walk without becoming breathless. During the COVID pandemic, I embarked on a weight loss journey, which had its ups and downs. I attempted running several times, but it never lasted long due to lack of enjoyment and knee pain.
I had neglected to look after my body physically and it made running difficult. I had also neglected my relationship with God, and it made faith and any form of spiritual well-being impossible.
In April 2022, I became a Christian after understanding the life-transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel, meaning "good news," teaches that humanity has lost its relationship with its Maker due to sin. Despite our inability to earn favour from a holy God, the good news is that God provided a Saviour for us in Jesus Christ. By forsaking our way of life and trusting in Him as Saviour, we receive new life and eternal life as a free gift. This realisation was life-changing for me, as it has been for many others over the millennia, including my wife, who experienced a similar transformation years before me.
In 2017, she realised she could never be good enough for a holy, all-knowing, all-seeing God. By God’s grace (underserved and unmerited favour), she understood that God sent his only Son into this world to die for our sins so that we can be forgiven and be restored into a right relationship with God. It was then that she found true eternal joy and peace.
Together in marriage we run the race of faith. We try to please God in everything we do, though not to try and earn favour from Him since the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ has done this perfectly on our behalf. We hope to help others, who are helpless, because God saved us when we were helpless and underserving.
That’s why we want to do this half marathon: to help those in need, and to share the hope that we have in Jesus Christ with everyone we know and how real the Bible became to us.
In December 2024, I completed a 10km run, in just, over an hour. Today (March 2026) I now weigh under 104kg and my personal best is 42 minutes 9 seconds.
Please support my wife and I as we run to raise money for the homeless in London, and support the Webber Street Day Centre in their physical, emotional and spiritual care of the homeless in London.
And as always please do reach out to us if you would like to discuss our story in more detail or have any questions.
With love
Toby & Lokyan
"For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." Romans 5:7-9
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