DETERMINED children at a Rugby infant school have fired the starting pistol on a teacher’s fund-raising campaign.
The school’s pupils met on the playground to complete a dance warm up before the event got underway. Picture by Marcus Mingins 1625007MMR3
Bilton Infant School teacher Fran Condry is running the London Marathon on Sunday (April 27) in aid of deaf-blind charity Sense – and pupils at the school took part in their own mini-marathon in support of her efforts.
Year 2 teacher Fran – who will be joined at the London Marathon by her dad Ed Condry and her job-share partner Helen Andrews – wanted to raise funds for Sense because the charity has supported her daughter Mia, who was born with cerebral palsy and without eyes, for her whole life.
To raise awareness of the charity and give her fund-raising campaign a boost, Fran organised a mini-marathon at the school.
She said: “We wanted all the kids to challenge themselves to do something they might not otherwise have done.
“We set up a 400-metre course around the school grounds and challenged the children to run around it as many times as possible in an afternoon.
“Mayor Simon Ward wished them luck and started each class in turn. School staff and Bilton Junior pupils were stationed all around the course to cheer the children on with tambourines and drums, and Year 2 had made signs, motivational posters and London marathon bunting.
“We thought some children would get tired and stop after 15 minutes or so, and so were bowled over when they all kept going until home time! We were amazed at their resilience and determination, and so proud of every single one of them.
“We were blown away by the support from the lovely families at our school who raised well over £1,000 for Sense.”
Putting in the hard yards. Picture by Marcus Mingins 1625007MMR4
Fran is facing her big challenge this weekend to celebrate Mia’s 18th birthday next month.
She said: “I wanted to do something to give back to Sense to celebrate her birthday, as we were told when she was born that it was unlikely that she would survive.
“I want to thank the charity that has stood by our family in many outstanding and practical ways for the past 18 years. Thanks to Sense, Mia is growing into the confident and independent adult that she is.”
Fran said Mia’s conditions – which include epilepsy and developmental delay – restrict her movement and mean she requires 24-hour care.
She added: “Mia is growing up in a different world to most teenagers. She doesn’t care about what she or anyone else looks like and she is not bothered by phones or technology. Her world view is pretty simple – she wants to have a laugh, go on adventures and eat chocolate.
“Her bravery astounds me – this week she was surfing on a seated board in hail, wind and rain with really choppy waves. So whilst her body won’t let her do a lot of things independently, her heart will let her do most things.”
She said Sense had provided Mia with an ‘endless list’ of practical, fun and creative support over the years, including tailored holidays, activities, training, music and play sessions and more, adding: “Sense has taught us that there should be no limits to what Mia can achieve, as long as she has the right support around her.”
Alongside Ed and Helen, Fran has already raised over £12,000 for the cause – and is on her marks to further boost that total.
“I am feeling nervous and excited about running the London Marathon,” she said. “But I know that when it is getting hard, I can dig deep and think about Mia and – hopefully! – push through. And I’m hoping that next year she’ll be doing it with us!”
Visit https://tinyurl.com/bdcvcbcu to sponsor Fran, Ed and Helen.
