Freya Morgan is a human rights lawyer running 2,500km to support refugees – all while dressed as a human disco ball
ARCTIC ULTRA p22
CALL IT A COMEBACK p26 HUMAN( )RACE
NEWS, VIEWS, TRENDS and ORDINARY RUNNERS doing EXTRAORDINARY THINGS
IT WAS DURING THE LOWEST POINT OF HER LIFE that Freya Morgan made a connection with refugees struggling in Britain.
‘I was very depressed and in a dark place. I tried to take my own life when I was 16. Luckily, it didn’t work and I went on to work for refugee, mental health and community charities. Through my volunteering at The Listening Place, I learned about how vulnerable people can suffer in the UK. It really opened my eyes,’ says Morgan.
As she came to understand more about the plight of refugees as they arrive in the UK and the high rates of suicide in detention centres, she was able to reflect on her own experience and what she wanted to do with her life.
During lockdown, she decided to try to qualify as a human rights barrister and got a job as a paralegal while studying for the bar. By this point, she’d been running for her own mental health for around eight years. ‘My dad is a keen runner and believed that finding some exercise would help me. At first, I was like a grumpy teenager and didn’t want to do it, but on 1 January 2012, I made a New Year’s resolution. I thought, you know what, if I’m already in so much pain, what difference is it going to make? I’m just going to prove him wrong and it’s not going to work.’
Despite being unable to run for more than a minute, she felt an immediate connection with her body. ‘You feel your breathing and your legs and you’re just completely where you are in that moment. I realised that, when running, I can’t think about anything else. Something about that just took me out of the headspace I was in.’
Gradually, Morgan ran from couch to 5K, and by the summer she was running a half marathon every weekend. Before long, she was completing marathons and running became her safe space.
Then, during 2021, Morgan met fellow human rights law student Aaron Rajesh during their studies. Morgan, who had fundraised for years, wanted to do something to support vulnerable immigration detainees.
SHE’S KEEN TO CELEBRATE THE POSITIVE IMPACT REFUGEES HAVE ON BRITAIN
She was alarmed by a report that found one third of detainees at Brook House detention centre were on suicide watch. Deciding to take action, she set her sights on raising £120,000 for Bail for Immigration Detainees, a charity that provides essential legal protection for refugees and asylum seekers in detention.
She ran her idea past Rajesh, who had fled India to Canada a
