This year we are taking an even larger group to Annecy in France for our biggest challenge yet including climbing higher peaks, cycling and swimming across Lake Annecy.

Our History

Mark started the Durham Inspired Coleman Scholarship in 2021 to make sure students who want to study Computer Science at Durham University have the option to do so with the idea that no talented young person should be denied the education they deserve because of their financial circumstances.

In March 2024 Mark ran 10k for the cause, and was then joined by a group which continues to grow. In June 2024 the group walked 92 kilometres along the Lancaster Canal, from Kendall in the Lake District to Preston, in 2025 a larger group did the three peaks in the UK, and this year we're taking on our biggest challenge yet.

Initially focussed on helping one student at a time, the money raised by the growing group of volunteers allowed us to begin supporting two students concurrently in 2024 and we hope to expand that to 3 in the coming years.

Our first scholar graduated from Durham in 2025 and has moved on to an exciting position at Oxford University.

Additional Links

For more information about the scholarship's story so far this post on LinkedIn provides some useful background: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markrobertcoleman_durham-inspired-computer-science-coleman-activity-7126601125541081088-GnpI

The official scholarship page is here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/scholarships/undergraduate/durham-inspired-computer-science-coleman-scholarship/

Thanks in advance for your support and and we look forward to sharing updates from the challenge!