Gold Coast Marathon for Vinnie

Hi Family and Friends,

As some of you might be aware, I am a few weeks into my training to take part in the Gold Coast Marathon on 7^th July. With the exception of a couple of hung-over Sundays, I have managed to stick to a training plan on the Runkeeper App which will enable my body to complete the 42.2 Kilometres in under 3 hours 30 minutes.......FACT!

I set out on this running journey to purely satisfy my want/need to do a marathon and do it at an age (early 30's) that I can push myself and get to a level of fitness that enables me to do a relatively quick time.   Fundraising wasn’t part of the original plan, hence being a quarter through the training plan until you have received this. Then Milly told me about her friend Sam’s nephew, Vinnie, a little lad not much older than our Max, who was born with PFFD (proximal femoral focal deficiency) which is a rare congenital deformity. Basically, he has one short leg and a short arm.

To lengthen his leg the first thing to do was to strengthen his knee and hip in an operation in the States. Vinnie is currently recovering after the marathon surgery. The surgery was not without its complications, though it has been successful. That said, the work for Vinnie and his family has only just begun. At this stage it looks like he’ll need a lengthening operation at age 4, 8, 12 & 16 with a 4 month intense rehabilitation after each operation.

After Milly told me, Vinnie's story kept popping into my head during my runs and gave me a real sense of how lucky I am to be able to run, never mind training for and running a marathon, and how lucky we are as parents to have such a healthy little son of our own, and with that I have decided to put all my kilometres on the road to good use and raise as much money as possible for Vinnie’s ongoing treatment.

I will be doing a few different fund raising events along the way, but it would be brilliant if you could chip in what you can and help make the journey to recovery for Vinnie a little easier.

Thanks!

Matt