A ‘SUPER mum’ from Rugby has been shortlisted for a prestigious award for raising £22,000 for charity to celebrate her disabled daughter’s 18th birthday.
Fran Condry, her dad Ed, and fellow teacher Helen Andrews have been jointly shortlisted for the Fundraiser of the Year title in disability charity Sense’s annual awards.
Alongside her dad and colleague, the Paddox Primary School teacher ran the London Marathon in April to raise funds for the charity, which has supported her daughter Mia – who was born with cerebral palsy and without eyes – since she was three.
Their coffers were boosted by £2,000 at a mini-marathon held at Bilton Infant School where Fran and Helen worked at the time – with one pupil even donating his pocket money.
Mia’s 18th marked a huge milestone that her family were once unsure if she would reach. Retired bishop Ed even blessed her shortly after she was born, as it was not known if she would survive.
Since then, Mia, who has good hearing and verbal communication skills, has gone on to thrive and become an adventurous and increasingly independent teenager who enjoys lots of adaptive sports with Sense.
Mia was at the London Marathon along with her dad Dean and siblings Leo, 13, and Iris, 11, to cheer on her team from the sidelines.
The family hopes they will soon secure a London Marathon place for Mia so a team of supporters can take turns to push her wheelchair around the 26.2 mile course.
Fran, 43, said being nominated for the award made her, Helen and Ed ‘extremely proud and happy’.
She added: “Taking on the London Marathon and fundraising for Sense seemed the perfect way to celebrate Mia’s 18th birthday. Sense has empowered Mia to be the very best she can be throughout her life.
“Her amazing multi-sensory impairment teacher, Anne Cheesbrough, has been supporting Mia now for 15 years and has become an integral part of our family’s lives. Mia loves her monthly play sessions with Anne. They are best friends – they just have a really good time together.
“Anne has encouraged Mia to do all kinds of things as she’s grown up, like enjoying adaptive skiing and surfing and abseiling, going off on holiday and becoming a member of a Saturday morning choir.
“But she has also helped me with accessing education for Mia, even coming along to school meetings. Now she’s helping me think about Mia’s future and how to support her to be more independent and reach her full potential as an adult – perhaps by going off to college.
“Thinking about everything Mia has achieved kept me going on London Marathon day. Helen and I stuck together all the way round. We’ve shared a job, splitting teaching a primary school class for a decade.
“Dad, meanwhile, did the marathon at his own pace and enjoyed the atmosphere.
“One day, we’d love to do the London Marathon with Mia and a team of us would take turns to push her wheelchair. We’ve done Parkruns with her and she says, ‘Go faster! Go faster!’ so she’d enjoy doing the marathon.”
Anne Cheesbrough, Senior MSI Practitioner at Sense, said: “Fran, Ed and Helen richly deserve to be shortlisted.
“They give an awful lot to their local communities and to the children Fran and Helen teach, so people want to support them in return.
“Getting to know and supporting Mia since she was very young has been a joy and a privilege.
“She’s grown up into a very confident young lady. Her imagination and memory are phenomenal and when Mia and I meet up for our sessions, we often create stories and songs.
“She and her whole family are very important to Sense and we’re so happy to honour them.”
This year’s Sense awards take place next month, judged by a five-strong panel of disabled people including Strictly Come Dancing finalist Tasha Ghouri.
Visit www.sense.org.uk/sense-awards for more information.
