Cork school physio to run a carpark marathon to raise money for a special bus
A physiotherapist is set to run a marathon for a bus in a school car park on Sunday.
And if your head is spinning after the intro, spare a thought for Stephen Kelleher, 32, from Ballyvolane in Cork, who will run up to 230 circuits of St Paul’s small school car park in his 26.2-mile fundraiser for the special school for children with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities.
The school, which caters for nearly 100 students aged four to 18, is in desperate need of a new wheelchair-accessible school bus and was in the midst of a massive fundraising drive for a new vehicle when the coronavirus pandemic struck.
School principal Anne Hartnett said while they had raised around €43,000 of their €75,000 target, the need for a new bus dropped down her priority list during the pandemic, but people continued fundraising.
Watergrasshill AC asked their members to run or walk five miles a day for 20 days. They have raised over €6,500 so far.
And Stephen, the school physio, set out to run 300km in May and finish with a full marathon on Sunday - the official date of the now cancelled Cork City marathon. He’s raised almost €3,000 already.
“Raising funds for the bus where the bus will eventually be parked up on the day of what was supposed to be the Cork City marathon just seemed to me to be the right thing to do. And the car park is within my 5km,” Stephen said.
I think the monotony of going round the car park will be the biggest challenge and it will be a mental game.
“I’ve never run more than a half marathon before but I’m feeling good. The legs are good and training, lots of loops in my locality, has been going well.”
His wife, Aoife, who is eight months pregnant, will be there to cheer him on and he will be 'joined' by colleagues and friends of the school on four teams who will run a relay marathon remotely from their own locality, including Cathy Wyer, Norma Foley, Eileen Russell, Jenna Pyne, Joelle O'Connell, Alma Worrall, Melissa Delaney, Kate Ryan, Laura Dwane, Moire Fullam, Anita Kelleher, Aisling Noonan, Ger Grennan, Emma McCarthy, Jomy Jose, Gearoid Collins, Denise Banks, Gary O'Sullivan, Mary Hallahan, and Anne Marie O’Hanlon, who will be taking part from New York.
Ms Hartnett said the school is very grateful to those who always think of others even during a global crisis and she said the new bus will be crucial for the childrens’ education as it will allow them to attend essential school outings which enable them to engage in real-life skills in their local area.
To donate to Stephen’s GoFundMe page search for the campaign, Run For The Bus.
Meanwhile, registered participants for the Cork City Marathon have been encouraged to walk, jog or run their selected distance, while respecting the public health restrictions, over the coming days by using the marathon's virtual race website which goes live on Sunday.
Participants can achieve their selected distance across a number of days and submit their race times online.
