Project Salt Run is a world-first endurance challenge with a simple but powerful message: ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference. Led by Better Business Network founder Hannah Cox, who is not a professional athlete, the expedition is running 100 marathons in 100 days across India to raise £1 million for people and the planet, showing that meaningful change starts not with perfection, but with participation.
The challenge will finish on Monday 2nd February at the Bangladeshi Border.
Project Salt Run fundraising for four charity partners: 1% for the Planet, Frank Water, ClientEarth and Big Change. Together, these organisations work across clean water access, legal climate action, systemic change for young people and long-term environmental protection.
Project Salt Run already has raised £50,000 and has the potential to stand as one of the most significant individual led climate fundraising efforts ever undertaken, and the largest climate focused fundraising effort led by a female endurance runner as donations still continue to come in.
Project Salt Run has pushed the team through extreme heat, chaotic city crossings, broken terrain, illness, sleep deprivation and relentless daily mileage. Yet despite the conditions, the mission remains unchanged: proving what becomes possible when community and purpose come together.
Hannah began running less than a year before the challenge and is completing the expedition while managing scoliosis and an autoimmune disease. She recently ran a full week of marathons while suffering from acute gastroenteritis. The challenge has never been about physical perfection, but about perseverance and showing that ordinary people can be part of creating a better future.
She is supported by a small, determined field team: Natalie Smith (Communications & Social Media) and Alex Fowler (Podiatrist and daily run support) along with their Driver Asgar Ali, and helper Raja Ali. Together, they are demonstrating how a handful of people, backed by community, can attempt something far bigger than themselves.
Over the past 90 days, Project Salt Run has been carried forward not just by physical endurance, but by human kindness. The team has been welcomed into homes, shops, farms and villages across India. Families have cooked meals, shared stories, and offered shelter and care.
One farming family invited the entire crew to stay on their land, feeding them and treating them as family. A man from Punjab drove 12 hours simply to deliver biscuits and cookies as a gesture of support. These moments have become the emotional heartbeat of the journey reminders that this project belongs to many, not just those running it.
The run follows the Inland Customs Line, a long-forgotten 4,200km colonial barrier once enforced with a living hedge used to collect the salt tax more than 150 years ago. What was once a symbol of division and control is now being reimagined as a route of connection, courage and climate action.
Hannah Cox is British, with Indian heritage. Her father moved from India to the UK, a family history that gives the project added personal meaning when she reaches his childhood home in Kolkata. The finish line transforms the expedition from a physical feat into a deeply personal journey one that bridges history, legacy and the urgent need for change.
In the final days of the challenge, the team will be based at Vedic Village Spa Resort, which has generously gifted accommodation to support the completion of the expedition. Set in peaceful natural surroundings outside Kolkata, the resort is providing a rare and much-needed space for rest, recovery and reflection after nearly 100 consecutive days on the road. The support highlights the vital role that values-led hospitality and businesses can play in enabling ambitious projects for people and the planet to reach the finish line safely and sustainably.
Raising £1 Million for people and planet
Project Salt Run is fundraising for four charity partners: 1% for the Planet, Frank Water, ClientEarth and Big Change. Together, these organisations work across clean water access, legal climate action, systemic change for young people and long-term environmental protection.
Why support is needed now
Project Salt Run is powered by determination, community kindness and one very hardworking van called Moxy, serving as bunkhouse, kitchen, command centre and occasional bathroom. The team sleeps at petrol stations, eats mostly rice and roadside food, washes clothes in buckets, and still covers 42.2km every day, while managing safety, logistics, content and recovery.
It isn’t polished. It isn’t comfortable. But it is real and that is what makes this challenge powerful and a story worth sharing.
Donation Link: https://givestar.io/gs/project-salt-run
