Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford is encouraging people to use his platform to take part in Unicef’s Water Walk.

The 26-year-old described it as “mind blowing” that young children in some parts of the world “have to choose between going to school” and “providing clean water for their families.”

The England forward is calling on supporters to raise funds to help the more than 2 billion people who do not have access to clean, safe drinking water.

Unicef is hosting the Water walk, which urges participants to walk five miles every day for one week in September, in order to raise awareness of the almost 260 million people who travel for more than 30 minutes every day in order to collect safe water.

“It blows my mind that millions of people around the world have to walk for miles just to access clean water,” Marcus said. On a football field, Marcus can run five miles in around seventy-five minutes.

We frequently take for granted the convenience of being able to stroll to the kitchen anytime we’d like and have a fresh glass of water, but regrettably, not everyone enjoys that privilege.

“I want to use my platform to raise awareness of this, so I’m asking people to participate in Unicef UK’s Water Walk in order to help raise as much money as possible to support families in need of clean water and prevent young children from having to choose between attending school or playing with their friends.”

Unicef may install water pumps and pipes with the money raised to make sure kids have access to clean, safe drinking water. By 2030, the charity wants to make sure that no child has to go more than thirty minutes one way to receive water.