{"id":7542,"date":"2026-04-30T17:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/?p=7542"},"modified":"2026-04-30T17:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:15:13","slug":"a-scotgem-tradition-continues-st-andrews-parkrun-volunteering-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/a-scotgem-tradition-continues-st-andrews-parkrun-volunteering-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"A ScotGEM tradition continues: St Andrews Parkrun Volunteering Takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7544\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7544\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7544\" src=\"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2026\/04\/St-Andrews-park-run-2026-04-25-scaled-e1777565350322.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"447\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7544\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers from the Year 1 ScotGEM cohort and members of staff at the St Andrews Parkrun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Medical students from the University of St Andrews laced up their running shoes and donned high\u2011visibility vests last weekend as they volunteered at the local <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parkrun.org.uk\/standrews\/\">St Andrews Parkrun<\/a> in Craigtoun Park.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday morning (25 April), Year 1 ScotGEM students organised and delivered a full Parkrun \u201ctakeover\u201d for the fourth consecutive year, filling every volunteer role needed to keep the popular weekly event running smoothly. From marshalling along the route to timekeeping and barcode scanning at the finish line, the students, along with four dedicated members of staff at the School of Medicine, \u00a0ensured the event was a success for all involved.<\/p>\n<p>Parkrun is a global initiative that encourages people of all ages and abilities to walk, jog or run a free, timed 5km in a friendly, community\u2011led setting. With around 140,000 people taking part across the UK each week, events such as the one at Craigtoun Park rely entirely on volunteers.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s takeover was coordinated by ScotGEM student Kathryn Thomas. Ahead of the start, she shared a short message with participants, underlining the importance of regular movement and exercise for long\u2011term health, which is a theme closely aligned with Parkrun\u2019s ethos and the students\u2019 future roles as healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n<p>The atmosphere on the morning was described as positive and supportive, with students, Parkrun regulars and members of the local community coming together. Volunteers were also treated to homemade baking before the start, providing a welcome boost ahead of their morning duties.<\/p>\n<p>Well done to all involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medical students from the University of St Andrews laced up their running shoes and donned high\u2011visibility vests last weekend as they volunteered at the local St Andrews Parkrun in Craigtoun Park. On Saturday morning (25 April), Year 1 ScotGEM students organised and delivered a full Parkrun \u201ctakeover\u201d for the fourth consecutive year, filling every volunteer&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[1469,1470,1015,1059],"class_list":["post-7542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-scotgem","tag-community","tag-kathryn-thomas","tag-scotgem","tag-st-andrews-parkrun"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 22:18:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7542"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7547,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7542\/revisions\/7547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}