Bradford humanitarian and BEM recipient Nazim Ali has completed his 13th annual Ramadan 10K challenge in Derby – running 6.2 miles while fasting for 14 hours and pushing his lifetime charitable fundraising beyond an extraordinary £1.4 million.
Nazim crossed the finish line on Sunday 15 March 2026, once again self-funding the challenge, covering his own accommodation, race fee and travel costs as part of one of Yorkshire’s most remarkable annual acts of endurance and service.
Battling bitterly cold, blustery conditions, he completed the course in 1:04:11 – despite a strong headwind and pain in his right hip during the closing stages – before producing what supporters have come to know as his trademark sprint finish.
Nazim said: “It was really cold to begin with with blustery conditions and at times the wind pushing against me, which meant I had to work twice as hard. Then in the final two kilometres I could feel my right hip. I still ended up with a time of 1:04:11 with the trademark sprint finish.”
This year’s route took runners from Derby County Football Club’s Pride Park Stadium through the city centre, passing Derbion shopping centre, Derby Cathedral and the Silk Mill, before heading back along the River Derwent to the stadium.
This year’s run was in aid of the Nazim Ali Foundation, in partnership with Green Crescent Aid UK, to support the charity’s Azad Kashmir New Homes Project – helping poor and vulnerable families move out of dangerous, crumbling homes and into safe, secure new three-room houses complete with a kitchen and bathroom.
Each home costs £2,600, and Nazim’s original target was £52,000 – enough to build 20 new homes.
But with donations and pledges continuing to come in, he now expects the total to hit £100,000, meaning even more families could soon have a safe place to call home.
The campaign is deeply personal.
Nazim recently visited the remote mountainous village of Charhoi in Azad Kashmir at the start of Ramadan, where he saw first-hand the dangerous conditions many families are living in.
He described cracked walls, unstable structures and homes without bathrooms in a village so remote that access itself was a challenge.
Nazim said: “This fundraiser is very personal to me as my family’s roots are from Azad Kashmir. The homes were unsafe with cracks in the walls and they didn’t even have bathrooms in the remote mountainous village of Charhoi.”
His first training run for the challenge was completed in the mountainous town of Kotli in Azad Kashmir – a symbolic beginning to a campaign rooted in both heritage and humanitarian duty.
This year marked Nazim’s 13th annual Ramadan 10K run, a powerful tradition that has become one of Bradford’s most inspiring examples of faith, resilience and service. Over the previous 12 Ramadan 10K runs, he had already raised more than £600,000.
That impact now stretches even further. With this latest fundraiser, Nazim says he has now surpassed £1.4 million raised for charitable causes in the UK and overseas – supporting house-building projects, emergency relief and humanitarian aid across countries including Malawi, Syria, Pakistan, Uganda, Burundi, and Afghanistan.
For more than 28 years, Nazim has been a driving force for community and humanitarian action in Bradford and beyond. A British Empire Medal (BEM) recipient in the King’s New Year Honours 2025, and awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Bradford in 2023, he continues to balance his charity work with a full-time role as a Careers Adviser in three inner-city schools.
Closer to home, he also leads the Nazim Ali Foundation’s Khidma Community Kitchen, providing weekly meals for homeless and vulnerable people in Bradford.
Nazim also thanked his long-term supporters, including Green Crescent Aid UK, the Keighley-based charity with a 100% donation policy he has worked with for more than nine years.
For those donating the full £2,600 needed to fund an entire home, a personalised plaque can be arranged, with full project feedback including videos and updates.
With the run complete and the fundraising total still rising, Nazim’s latest Ramadan challenge has once again shown what one determined Bradford fundraiser can achieve – not just over 10 kilometres, but across a lifetime of service.
