Volunteer at the Great North Run

We need volunteers to help support this amazing event and show our runners just how fantastic they are. If you’re keen as mustard to meet new people and full of beans about supporting a great cause, then we’d love you to join us.

Our volunteer coordinator, Ben McWilliams, has all the information you need to know about becoming a volunteer at the Great North Run.

How do you become a Great North Run volunteer?

Getting involved with the Great North Run couldn’t be easier. Simply visit our volunteering sign up page and complete the form.

Once we receive your form, we will get in touch to say thank you and to make sure you’re happy with everything. From then on, we’ll stay in touch until the day. As the event approaches, we will send out all the information you need about the day and how you will be getting stuck in.

What are the different volunteering roles at the Great North Run?

We currently have four different volunteering roles available.

• Marquee Support – Here you will meet and greet our Great North Run runners and be on hand for a chat and a well-needed cup of tea.  Based at the charity village, you will also support our staff and other volunteers with a range of activities.
• Cheer Team – Join the miles of smiles! Our ever-expanding cheer team stands towards the final mile of the Great North Run; watching, cheering,  and giving a boost to get our runners to the finish line and complete their tremendous achievement. A round of applause and a packet of sweets is usually just what a runner needs to finish off the last leg!
• Photographer – Keep your eyes peeled for our amazing new running gear and snap a photo of a runner on their way past! If you come on board as a photographer volunteer you will be critical in capturing the struggle, the glory and amazing achievement of finishing the world’s biggest half marathon! If you’ve got a keen eye for photography and a good camera, we’d love to have you with us.
• Massage Therapist – Are you a trained massage therapist who can help recover our runners from ruin? Then now is your chance to shine! As much as a cup of tea may help rehydrate, a sports massage can do a lot more. Support our runners with a post-race rub down and really make a difference on someone’s day.

How many volunteers are needed?

We are looking for about three-to-four people to be on-hand for our runners in our marquee. We usually look for two massage therapists, so we can get through all our runners and make sure you don’t need a massage of your own when you are done! Once these roles are filled we would struggle to fit any more people into the marquee.

But… There is no limit to the size of our cheer team! We have doubled our cheer team every year and, with your support, we hope to do this again! We will provide you with thunder sticks, flags, tabards, t-shirts and everything green for GNAAS to really make a scene!

What are the chances or being involved as a volunteer?

High! If we struggle to get you in our marquee we would still love to have you as part of the cheer team. We would hate to say you couldn’t join us because your cheer,  sweets or cuppa could really help someone. We want you to be there for the amazing runner raising the funds to keep us going. If you don’t mind getting a croaky voice the next day, come get join us cheering “GO GNAAS!” all day.

What other events are out there and how do I get involved with those?

Our summer calendar is always busy! Find out more about one-off volunteering opportunities in our events list.

We also have some amazing opportunities in your local community to get out there and raise some funds. Every donation helps save a life, so if you want to be part of it, join the Ground Crew at a Public Collection. Find our full Public Collections list here.

We hope to see you soon!