How ex-con turned hobby into 'biggest run club'

When Hermen Dange was an inmate at HMP Manchester, he used running as a way of getting extra time out of his prison cell.

He took part in the HMP Hindley Parkrun, which involved 11 laps of the prison football pitch.

But six years on he has turned the hobby into a successful brand, which has helped thousands of people.

After his release in 2020, Dange set up Made Running, and he recently held a huge event which "shut down the Trafford Centre".

"It's not been done before. I cried that day because this is a dream come true," he said.

Dange was 22 when he was convicted for drugs conspiracy and money laundering but he said it was running which has helped him turn his life around.

He told BBC North West that running helped him both physically and mentally during his sentence and motivated him to "do better".

"I was depressed," Dange said. But he said the exercise helped him escape negative thoughts.

In 2020, Dange was released from prison and continued to run in an attempt to stay on the right path.

He said: "I'm seen as a successful man now, but I was far from successful when I came out.

"Applying for jobs, getting knocked back because of my criminal record, a lack of experience, and my mental health started kicking in."

"So, that's when running came out. It was the pandemic and at the time, you were allowed to be with two or three people in the park so I used that opportunity to run," he said.

"I needed to train my brain again."

Dange said he started doing daily runs in different parks and soon built a "fitness community".

"It was a mixture of ex-prisoners, employed people, self-employed, unemployed, and everyone was stressed all the way," he said. "Running helped us."

Dange set up a WhatsApp group and was encouraged by his friend Cheq to document their journey on social media.

"I'd just invite people to like, comment and join me at 7pm at this park, and then boom, I started a run club," he said.

"The Run Club started with nine people in the first run. Within two weeks we had 50, and then to the point now we've got three different runs."

Dange said that Made Running now had a community of more than 20,000 people overall, with some events bringing about 700 people together.

"As soon as we started branding "no-one gets left behind", it was clear that our run club would be different," he said.

"We're going to support you, no matter who you are or what you look like, whether you're fast, slow, or an average runner."

On Sunday 8 February, Made Running teamed up with Nike and JD Sports for the first ever race around the Trafford Centre, with 500 runners completing 5K round the shopping centre.

He said he was overwhelmed by the success of the event and became emotional.

"Like I started a social run club. It's officially the biggest run club in Europe, if not the world," he said.

"And I just cried because I saw people on tag, people that had just come out of prison, people of all different ethnicities and ages, people's mums just staring at me, waiting for me to hear my speech and I just broke down because that was my dream."

Dange now goes into schools and prisons to speak on the importance of utilising social media in the correct way.

He has also expanded his brand into a gym and a clothing line.

"I would really encourage everyone to take positive risks early," he said.

"I have to live with my past mistakes and I've given people a reason to judge me but now I'm starting to change my image and it's starting to pay off."

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