YouTuber aims for sub-40 10K to support Francis House Children’s Hospice

Ollie Drieu, a final year film student at Manchester Metropolitan University, is pulling on his running shoes in the hope of achieving a personal best by running 10 kilometres in less than 40 minutes.

Ollie, 21, films his runs on his own YouTube channel which he launched in December 2024 to just a handful of subscribers. With his engaging videos of the trials and tribulations of running, he has built up an impressive following of more than 2,000 subscribers.

Ollie said: “I started my channel because I wanted to force myself to learn and accomplish new things. It’s often easy to give up on new challenges, but when I publicly say I’m going to learn to juggle, solve a Rubik’s cube, and most notably run a sub-20-minute 5K, I feel obligated to give it my best shot! Plus, as a filmmaking student at MMU, any opportunity to practice making videos is great for me.”

332 days and 135 videos later he finally achieved his 5k goal at South Manchester parkrun in Platts Field Park with an impressive time of 19 minutes and 39 seconds.

The resulting video clocked up almost 8,500 views, with strangers and friends alike flooding the comment boxes with congratulations.

Ollie said: “When I started, I knew running was a big aspect of a lot of people’s lives, but I didn’t know that anyone would care about my personal training journey. Progress has been gradual, but with every video I post I get more people joining me on the journey.”

Viewers from across the world watch his content with 40% of subscribers being based in the UK. Men in their 20s and 30s make up the majority of his audience but people of all ages and genders enjoy watching.

Originally from Jersey and living in Fallowfield for his studies, Ollie regularly runs past Francis House Children’s Hospice in Didsbury and for his next challenge he aims to make a difference to the lives of sick children and their families by fundraising for the hospice.

Ollie said: “Francis House is a local charity to me in Manchester, and I thought being able to have a human connection with a charity - rather than one completely online - would give me a better understanding of exactly what I’m running for.

“When a subscriber suggested supporting a children’s hospice, I looked more into Francis House, and knew it was the one. Training can often be tedious and painful, and it’s not the easiest to motivate yourself. Knowing I’m running for an important cause would not only give me perspective on my problems (having to go on a run in the rain is nothing compared to challenges the children and their families face at the hospice), but with my growing YouTube audience it seemed a waste to not try to do some good with it.”

Watch Ollie’s fundraising challenge video on Vimeo

For his next challenge Ollie will need to shave almost two minutes off his personal best time which means running every kilometre in four minutes or less, ten times.

“Hopefully this challenge will not be as hard as the last one. With my sub-20 5K, I didn’t have the foundations that I have now. I didn’t know how to train, eat, recover, race, etc. Fortunately now, after a year of mistakes, I know a bit more on how to run fast. With this foundation, training will be smoother, but certainly not easy! Shaving 2 minutes off a run seems simple, but in practice that’s going to be a lot of discomfort on my end.

“My prediction could be completely off, but I estimate I’ll break 40 minutes by February 2026. I could take a lot longer, but recently I smashed my 5K PB by 42 seconds, so my fitness is good at the moment. My plan is to do it in a race environment, so I’ve booked a 10k race on February 8, 2026, at Heaton Park in Manchester.”

Ollie’s training regime will include running five to six days a week with a mixture of interval training, sprints, half marathons, and lots of 10k’s plus strength training.

Francis House Children’s Hospice provides care and support to the families of children and young people with life-limiting conditions. Services include respite care, sibling support, homecare, emotional support and end of life care and bereavement support.

Francis House has served the families of Greater Manchester for 34 years and costs £5.8 million a year to run. The majority of funding comes from charitable donations.

Commenting on Ollie’s challenge and fundraising efforts, Patrick Storey, fundraising officer of Francis House said: “We’re delighted that Ollie has chosen to support Francis House on his running journey! We really appreciate his commitment, and we’re looking forward to seeing him smash his challenges while raising vital funds that will help provide care for local families.”

Anyone wishing to support Ollie’s fundraising and follow his progress can visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/olliedrieu