East Antrim runner on course for 100km in a month for Tearfund

A Carrickfergus woman has embarked on a 100km charity challenge just one year after taking up running to improve her fitness.
Dr Claire Rush.Dr Claire Rush.
Dr Claire Rush.

As Northern Ireland went into lockdown, Dr Claire Rush, vice-president of The Girls’ Brigade International, heard about ‘5km A Day in May’ - a fundraiser challenge created by a group of runners for Tearfund.

Claire said: “Exactly 12 months ago, I made a decision to get fitter, healthier and stronger as I wanted to climb one of the world’s highest summits to inspire other girls and women to appreciate their bodies more and use them to achieve amazing physical feats.

“A year later, running has simply transformed my life; I have gained confidence, strength, endurance, better health as well as a new appreciation for my body. I was thrilled to push myself further to commit to running 100km in May with Tearfund because running has been so life-giving to me and now I can use my running goals to be life-giving to others.”

Claire is part of a group of 49 members who are covering the distance between Belfast and Newfoundland (over 3,300 kilometres) this month. Running mainly in Northern Ireland with a couple of members in England and one in Poland, they hope to raise £20,000 for the charity, which could aid up to 6,600 families living in poverty to access essential sanitising products like soap and bleach powder, helping them to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

“As a Christian, my faith motivates me to do all I can to help others discover life in all its fullness. I am supporting Tearfund because it is committed to raising material and spiritual hope for people in the world’s poorest communities during this COVID-19 pandemic,” says Claire.

Gemma Brown, Tearfund’s NI acting director, says: “Maintaining a distance from others and practising good hand hygiene is a herculean task for many of the world’s poorest communities. We are very concerned about some of the poorest countries, where life is already difficult and there is little infrastructure to deal with coronavirus.

“Living in a crowded household in a densely populated community, such as a refugee camp, and having to walk a long way for water, makes it much harder for people to take apparently simple measures such as social distancing and increased handwashing. These become incredibly hard asks, piled on top of an already challenging daily life.

“This is why we are so grateful to Claire and others like her around Northern Ireland who are fundraising or donating to our appeal: the generosity of the NI public is enabling us to carry out life-giving work amongst the world’s poorest communities.”

Running 100km during lockdown is indeed a challenge for Claire: “My alarm goes off at 5am and I am out pounding the roads of Carrick shortly after. But as much as I am finding the current situation difficult, I know that it is nothing compared to the suffering, fear and helplessness that families in extreme poverty are experiencing. Knowing that every run is an opportunity to raise money to help them survive and thrive motivates me to get out of bed.”

The group is running to support people like the Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, home to almost a million people, and the largest refugee camp in the world. “Sanitation and hygiene facilities in the camp are already inadequate and the streets are narrow and crowded, so social distancing is extremely difficult, and currently there aren’t enough hand-washing facilities,’ says Sudarshan Kodooru, Tearfund’s country director in Bangladesh.

“Tearfund is working both in the camps and in the host communities around, distributing leaflets about handwashing, distancing and recognising symptoms, and giving out hygiene kits containing soap, sanitiser and detergent powder, as well as installing 200 community washing facilities and giving food to those in quarantine.”

Around the world ,the charity is carrying out targeted hygiene promotion and education often via social media, constructing taps and water tanks, distributing essential hygiene kits and improving sanitation, distributing food to vulnerable people, and responding to psychosocial needs, as well as delivering emergency aid to the most vulnerable people and their communities. Tearfund is supporting its locally-based partners and churches to respond to this pandemic, working in all the countries where it has a presence, to minimise the risk of infection.

To support Claire’s running challenge, visit her Justgiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Claire100k.

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