Blogging for Bryce

Well, I've gone and done it - no going back! On November 1st 2009 I will be running 42.2km in the Auckland Marathon to raise money for my son's PE teacher, Bryce Clapham. I haven't actually met Bryce, I've just seen him around the school, usually with a big grin on his face. He probably wouldn't know me if he saw me, but like many I was shocked and saddened to hear that this big, strapping bloke had broken his neck playing a game of rugby a few weeks back. As the mum of two rugby-mad kids I know these things happen. It's the chance you take when you play any sport - but obviously you never think it's going to happen to you. Although I think about it a lot more these days - every time I see my youngest son lying on the field at the bottom of a ruck I hope like hell he gets up. The same week Bryce was injured my eldest son was playing a week long rugby rep tournament. 220 kids playing rugby at the same venue for seven days straight - and no presence of St John's Ambulance or whatever. Ludicrous! On one occasion when a child was injured (with a neck injury) he had to wait 40 minutes for an ambulance. Not good enough.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand! Here's Bryce with everything going for him. A young, popular teacher at Te Kauwhata College, recently made Dean of Year 10 and about to be a father for the first time. Then bang - in an instant his life is changed forever. It's not known at this stage what the future holds for Bryce but his journey is going to be a long, slow one. The students and teachers raised $3000 for him last week by holding a mufti day at school. A fantastic effort which got me thinking maybe I could help too.

I never used to be a sporty type - quite the opposite, I HATED sport! Never had much of a chance to do any sport growing up in England. Then I emigrated to NZ, sporting mad nation. What a shock to the system that was! I hated rugby with a passion until my own kids started playing it. Now I love it, but I never dreamed of doing any physical activity myself. Until I joined the gym one day and started walking on the treadmill. I soon got bored with that - I wanted to go faster! So I started running and discovered to my amazement that I was actually quite good at it. I could run for ages! I got off the treadmill and took to the roads instead. I did my first half marathon at the age of 35 and enjoyed it so much I wanted to do it again!

For me, the Auckland Marathon is one of those 'things I want to do before I turn 40' things. It started off as pure self indulgence - but now it's become much more. I'm not just running it for me, I'm running it for Bryce. I want to raise as much money as I can for him and his young family. As I type, he's stuck in hospital still anxiously awaiting the birth of his baby daughter and hoping his 'good arm' will be strong enough to hold her.

So I've done it now. I went to see the school principal yesterday and told him of my plan. He loved it! We've agreed we're going to try and get as many people to sponsor me in the marathon as we possibly can. Today I'm going to the bank to set up a special account for donations to go into and I've got an interview with the local newspaper. No going back now!