On Saturday 6th June, 292 of our amazing supporters joined us in London for the DSWT’s second ever Enormous Elephant Run, raising an incredible £50,000! A run with a difference, all the participants were dressed as elephants and it was a sight to behold, to see so many elephants running, dancing and playing.

All were running for the orphaned elephants we care for and the threatened herds we protect. It is a sad reality that presently, due to the ivory trade and the rampant poaching of Africa's elephants, to see close to 300 elephants together in Africa is becoming a rare sight and that’s why we were running for them in London.

With the sunshine beating down, all the ‘elephants’ joined in our fantastic warm up led by the ladies from Red Hot Yoga, before a group photo to try for a ‘Guinness World Record for the Largest Gatehring of People Dressed as Elephants’.

It wasn’t long before our first 10k runners set off, and were soon followed by our 5k runners, walkers and joggers. Remembering why we are running for elephants, all our runners finished with big smiles and wore their finisher’s medals with pride after!

Says Rob Brandford, Executive Director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (UK): “I was humbled and delighted to see so many of our incredible supporters join us on the day and help spread the word. Even more so, because through their hard work fundraising, our elephant runners have already raised a staggering £50,000 for elephant protection, which is simply amazing.”

We’d like to say an enormous thank you to all the participants for making the London run such a success for elephants, and a jumbo sized thank you to our 40+ volunteers and marshals, without who we simply couldn't host an event of this nature. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Williamson Tea for supporting us on the day, accompanied by their gorgeous tea caddies, and Sainsburys for supplying the limitless number of bananas!

For those of you excited by the idea of dressing as an elephant and running for the species, there is an Enormous Elephant Run in Manchester, UK on the 25th July http://runforelephants.com/manchester. We’ll also soon be sharing exciting news about how you can run for elephants where ever you live!

We’re already looking forward to London's EER 2016!