Meet The Coopah Refugee Run Club: designers of this year’s finisher T-shirt and medal
Rawand Gurun and Paul Mwila, two of the designers of this year’s finisher items, have had their lives transformed through running.
They arrived alone in the UK without a support network, but chance meetings with Coopah’s Refugee Run Club would change that. Rawand, who arrived in the UK from Kurdistan in 2020, was not able to run 5K continuously, and Paul, who travelled from Zambia in 2022, was running alone at 04:00, unaware of the running communities around him.
They both find strength and hope in running and have helped co-design a medal and T-shirt for The Big Half 2025 that symbolise resilience and the promise that difficult times do come to an end. The design features interlocking rings to represent the diverse journeys that unite at The Big Half – a powerful symbol of solidarity and togetherness. The confetti, sprinkled on the medal, illustrates the joy of the crowds supporting participants and the emotion of crossing the Finish Line besides the historic Cutty Sark.