Ailish and her friends Patricia, Trisha, Anne-Marie, Carmel, Sandy and Sheamus ran the Dublin mini marathon and raised £3200 for Fanconi Hope.
Ailish is no stranger to the long drive from Castlebar to Dublin, but this time she wasn’t on her way to a hospital, she’d decided to run the Dublin Mini Marathon for Fanconi Hope. Ailish had been a runner in her 30s and 40s completing 10K’s in under 50 minutes, but it had been a while, and the challenge was a way of proving to herself that she could still do it, as well as raising some money.
“I’d wanted to do something for Fanconi Hope for a while, but the Family Day in 2019 really cemented that. I’d left so fulfilled” she said. “Like most Fanconi parents, I didn’t really want to be there at first, but it was filled with hope and connection. It was brilliant!”
Ailish’s daughter Sian (now 17) was born with FA and got her diagnosis when she was 6 years old. Sian had a bone marrow transplant at 11 and has had various health challenges since. “She asks a lot of her own questions now, grilling doctors to proper answers, while also searching for stuff on Google. Fanconi Hope has been a voice of reason in this, even though you really can’t compare one person with FA to another.”
“We live in the moment” Ailish says. “There are a few things Sian can’t and won’t be able to do (like going out for an alcoholic drink or playing contact sports) but there’s so much she can do. She doesn’t feel hard done by; she just does things and gets on with life, that’s inspiring for the rest of us.”
It didn’t take long for Ailish to get more people involved in Dublin’s Charity 10K. “We thought, we’ll jog it, walk it whatever, the important thing was to do it.”
Ailish had done some fundraising before, but never using an online tool like Just Giving. “It was so much easier than the last time,” she said, remembering a time of sponsorship sheets stuck on work fridges and having to connect cash from people. “I just kept sharing it on social media.”
“My running mates were brilliant too” she says, “everyone worked together as a team to keep creating and sharing the posts”.
Fanconi Hope sent the runners some t-shirts and the team had a banner made up. They’d done some training and felt ready. “The day of the run was exciting, there was a good buzz and it wasn’t too hot. I even was way better than I thought it would be, slower than before, but I surprised myself and came in just over the hour.”
It was also an emotional experience for Ailish, “I was tearful as I finished” she told us, “I felt so grateful to be able to do it for them, to do something that could make a difference.”
Big thanks to Ailish, Patricia, Trisha, Anne-Marie, Carmel, Sandy and Sheamus!
Did you know that Fanconi Hope also supports FA families in the whole of Ireland. There aren’t many but we’re here for you! Get in touch if you need us.
If you’d like to take on a fundraising challenge for Fanconi Hope, then you’re in luck! We have access to places in a huge range of sporting events. Find one near you on our fundraising page.