Mel Bound, Founder and CEO of This Woman Runs – one of the world’s largest women’s running communities – has been awarded an OBE for services to women’s community sport.
Mel has been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours for helping tens of thousands of women overcome barriers to physical activity and experience the benefits of movement, connection and belonging.
What began in Bristol in 2014 as a simple Facebook post asking for a running buddy has grown into a nationwide behaviour change movement for women, built around community and belonging. TWR helps women move from wanting to be active to becoming regularly active, starting with 30 minutes of walking or running in ways that feel accessible, welcoming and sustainable.
Today, the organisation supports tens of thousands of women across 35 cities through free weekly 30-minute walks and runs, led by trained volunteer Run Angels every Sunday morning. These sessions create welcoming, non-judgemental spaces where women can move in a way that feels good, build confidence, connect with others and keep coming back.
Alongside its community programme, the organisation has also developed Run30, a coaching programme delivered both in person and through its award-winning app, helping women build confidence and consistency through movement.
Mel says receiving the OBE is recognition not only of her work but of the volunteers, members, supporters and partners who have helped build a movement designed around belonging first and movement second: “This honour is for all of them, and for everyone working at the coalface of grassroots sport, often with very little resource and very little recognition. You are changing lives. I hope this helps more people see that.
“Women don’t simply need to be told to exercise more,” said Bound. “They need spaces where they feel safe, welcome, understood and able to begin. That’s what This Woman Runs exists to create.”
Mel’s journey began long before she founded the organisation. As a child who suffered with asthma, she was encouraged by her GP to take up running, an experience that sparked a lifelong belief in the power of movement. With the idea for This Woman Runs emerging from her own experience of trying to return to exercise following childbirth and major back surgery.
Founded as This Mum Runs and rebranded as This Woman Runs in 2024, the organisation was created to address a simple but persistent problem: many women want to be active but do not always feel confident or welcome in traditional fitness environments.
And the impact of the community extends beyond physical activity. According to TWR member surveys, 94% of participants report a positive impact on their physical health, 96% on their mental health.
Lydia, a local Run Angel says, “If you’d told me 2 years ago when I was just getting back to running after my second child that I’d be able to do a half marathon I’d think you were mad. I love getting out running with This Woman Runs so much and the community we’ve created. It’s because of them I believed I might actually be able to do it one day.”
On hearing about her OBE, Mel said: “When the letter arrived, I cried, not because this work has ever been about recognition, but because recognition like this makes visible so much of what usually goes unseen: the early mornings, the quiet encouragement, the nervous first steps, the volunteers who notice who needs support, and the hundreds of small moments that help women believe they belong.
“This work is everything to me: joyful, rewarding, challenging, relentless and completely worth it. But what makes it so special is the people: the women who trusted us enough to turn up, often terrified, and kept coming back; the volunteers who give up their Sunday mornings because they genuinely believe what they are doing matters; and my team, advisors, partners, funders and champions who have believed in this movement and helped build it from the ground up.”
Alongside leading This Woman Runs, Mel also serves as a Non-Executive Director for the This Girl Can campaign, continuing to advocate for greater inclusion and accessibility across sport and physical activity.