The AKU Society has been doing lots of fundraising to raise money for our first International Patient Workshop due to take place on 20th April. In this week’s blog we introduce some of our Cambridge Half Marathon runners and explain our plans to expand our community fundraising.
The Cambridge Half Marathon will take place on Sunday 28th February – one day before Rare Disease Day! The 13 mile run will route takes you through the historic city of Cambridge; the home of the AKU society office.
Meet Hannah – Hannah is working on a BT graduate scheme in London and enjoys travelling, visiting cathedrals and running! She is good friends with our fundraising officer Lydia and hopes to raise awareness of people with rare diseases. Hannah has signed up to run her first full marathon in April, so this half marathon will be the perfect training opportunity! We admire your dedication to running Hannah and really appreciate your support! Please consider supporting Hannah by donating to her justgiving page.
Meet Shuaib – Shuaib is a 3rd year undergraduate at Cambridge studying Economics. He stays active by rowing for the college and playing football and enjoys indulging in the occasional chocolate binge! He has never taken part in any runs before, but is looking forward to the challenge. Shuaib is planning on preparing for the big day by listening to some motivational music and eating a banana! We wish him luck and thank him for choosing to support AKU patients! Please consider supporting Shuaibs training efforts by donating to Shuaibs justgiving page.
Meet Jack – Jack graduated with a Geology degree from Cambridge University and recently started working as a trainee accountant in London. He is a friend of our fundraising officer Lydia and is keen to support the AKU Societies work. Jack ran the Cambridge Half Marathon last year after 3 hours of sleep and is keen to beat his time of 1 hour 54mins! He is inspired by the Marathon des Sables, where runners are challenged to running 5.5 marathons in a week in the Sahara! We admire your dedication Jack and thank you for your support! Please consider donating to Jacks justgiving page to support his fundraising efforts.
Meet Kate – Kate is an Engineering student at Cambridge University. She rows for her college and took up running last year, completing her first half marathon last summer. She hopes to beat her previous time in February! Kate is supporting the AKU Society because she wants to help build a supportive AKU community and help find a cure for AKU. Thank you for your support Kate – please consider supporting Kates efforts by donating to her justgiving page.
Our Half Marathon runners are playing an important part in expanding our fundraising work here at the AKU Society. One of our key goals is to build a strong AKU community, and our fundraising events will not only raise money and spread awareness, but also bring people together with the common goal of helping those affected by AKU. We want to broaden the reach of our fundraising events too, so that we involve people who may not have heard of AKU before. Having advertised our Cambridge Half Marathon places on social media, we are excited that several of our runners are not connected to AKU, yet they have really thrown themselves into their fundraising efforts.
For example Kate decided to throw a cake sale at Murray Edwards College to raise extra money on top of her sponsorship. This means that awareness of AKU will reach a wider group of people, who may even be future fundraisers themselves!
We have many other fundraising ideas in the pipeline, which will hopefully cater to all sorts of people, from athletes, to comedians, to dancers! In everything we do we are motivated by our mission to transform the lives of people with AKU and give them access to the information and treatment that they need. We are currently putting our fundraising towards our International Patient Workshop, coming up in April 2016. Thanks to the sponsorship raised by our Half Marathon runners we are able to assist patients from around the world with their plane tickets to attend the day.
Our runners would be really grateful and encouraged if you would consider sponsoring them on JustGiving. No matter how large or small your donation, every penny makes a difference to us!