This quote just about sums up the past little while for me personally. I’ve had a few hurdles to get over.
If we were talking about actual athletic-type hurdles on a running track, I’d not have been able to get over them at all. This has been a physical problem and although it’s been a tough few months, I’m pleased to say I’m well on the road to recovery now.
This blog is not about me though, or to ask for your sympathy (although I’m so grateful to my lovely family and Supershoes friends for all of that!). No, what it’s made me realise, is how much we take our bodies and our good health for granted.
It goes without saying that for a parent to be told that their child has cancer is at the extreme end of my opening quote’s spectrum. Thankfully, childhood cancer is relatively rare, although the shocking truth is that every day, 11 children in the UK will be diagnosed with this cruel disease. If we’re talking about hurdles to get over, this is a race that no-one wants to take part in. But they do, because they have to. There’s no choice but to run the race of their lives, all of them: the parents, the extended family, the friends, the medical professionals who care for that child. This race, to save a life, will demand from parents and their child a physical and mental resilience above and beyond anything they knew they had.
The last couple of months have seen a number of brave souls raise phenomenal sums of money for us by running their own races: marathons, half-marathons and marathon relay. I’m pretty sure that every one of them has had to face their own mental and physical challenges to do this. Having been somewhat immobile myself, I can only stand back, applaud and admire their huge physical and psychological effort, and know how tough it would have been for them, to train for weeks, and to challenge themselves for the final event. They’ve recognised and been grateful for their health and strength to be able to do this, I’m sure. But do you know what? Every one of them, on their fundraising pages, has said how much it has meant to have the support of their team, whoever that includes, to cheer them on, and also how raising funds for Supershoes has kept up their motivation to run the race. Because they realise that their race is now inextricably tied to a young person’s race. And how utterly cool is it that the symbol of that tie is a pair of laces, in a pair of trainers?
So for Paul who ran the Plymouth half-marathon, Jason & Andrew who ran the London marathon, plus Chris, Dean, Mike and Sean from Aztech IT who ran the MK relay marathon, thank you so, so much for all you had to do to run your races to help children you don’t even know, who are running their own, very scary, races.
At Supershoes, we’re on the finish line cheering all of you on!
