City2Surf 2011 – Running for Battens
26 Aug 11
You may have seen me in the Nowra News recently! I ran my 3rd City2Surf, on Sunday 14 August 2011, but this year was different. This year I ran to raise funds for a charity close to my heart, Batten Disease. Battens disease is a fatal, inherited neurological disease that primarily affects children. The disease takes their childhood and then takes away the child; it is not treatable or curable YET!
Sadly my cousin’s daughter, who is just 6 months younger than my youngest daughter, is battling Batten Disease. The Disease currently effects only 35 children in Australia - it is very RARE. Within 24 hours of registering to raise money for this charity I was contacted by the Batten Disease Support and Research Association (BDSRA) and notified that I was the ONLY runner in this years City2Surf registered to raise money for the charity. As such I happily agreed to wear a shirt to aid in raising awareness and support. Given that there was only two weeks to the event when I decided to fundraise, I originally set out to raise $500. Just three weeks after registering to fundraise I had raised over $1000.
I’d like to thank everyone in the Valley for their support, donations and well wishes. I know I can and will do better next year.
For more information on Batten Disease visit http://www.battens.org.au or watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsPm1CgEzOg&feature=share
Donations can still be made until the end of September at my City2Surf fundraising page - http://www.fundraise.city2surf.com.au/r_potter
Oh and if your interested, I knocked a whole 5 minutes off last years time, finishing in 1:34:23 and finished in the top 15% of my division. I’d recommend to everyone to run (or walk) the City2Surf – it’s certainly an experience!
Thanks
Rachelle Potter