Brenda's Climax At Lake Vyrnwy

For the past 12 months our Brenda has been organising various fund raising events for her grandson Callum who suffers from cerebral palsy.

At the last count Brenda has raised nearly £8000 towards her goal of £10,000 for the Phoenix Centre and Ridgehill in Wordsley

Callum was born on the 30^th November 2003 and unfortunately he was eight weeks premature. Within the last year doctors have confirmed that he has Cerebral Palsy and needs to attend hospital appointments to monitor his progress.

On Tuesdays he goes to Ridge Hill for physiotherapy which will hopefully enable him to walk as well as seeing a speech therapist as he cannot talk yet.

He also attends a special needs nursery twice a week called The Phoenix Centre, where he has one to one play and learn sessions.

Callum needs to undergo an operation on the back of his heels to loosen some muscles but like all operations, if things don't work out, it could mean that he will never be able to walk at all.

Lake Vyrnwy - End Of A Gruelling Year

Brenda's final fundraising event took place on Sunday 8th September when over 50 Dudley Ladies took part in this years Lake Vyrnwy Half Marathon.

It was the end of a gruelling non stop year for Brenda with one fund raising event or function after another but the money has come in and we are just waiting to see what the final total is.

Everyone has been very supportive of Brenda, non more so that Mary Lavender and Nick Walton who have both gone well out of there way to help in any way that they could.

And even on the day of the race, a raffle raised over a £100 on the coach, plus the coach from Stourbridge Running Club that was parked next to us heard about Brenda's cause and had a whip round amongst themselves to raise another £45. So a big thank you to everyone at Stourbridge RC in general and Anna Garratt in particular.

Even people that couldn't run on the day turned up to support Brenda and these included Nick and Julie Walton who followed the runners on their bikes taking many of the photos that you see on the website and giving support and encouragement along the way, Medina Stevens and her family (including the dog) were also there as well as Dave Bell, Neil Grigat-Bradley and many others too numerous to mention.

The Race

With regards the race itself, first home for the club was Petra Grigat-Bradley, followed by Carrie Creamer and Melanie Hodges.

Many of our ladies were either running their first half marathon or else ran PB's.

Our super veteran lady Marion Willetts again ran a blinder, with Isobelle Stavenuiter, Amanda Dingley, Ann Pedley, Nikki Freeman, Janet Beardsmore and Penelope Ladd all performing brilliantly.

Louise Bird, Gloria Bell, Kay Shotton, Jackie Fellows, Karen Bryan, Natalie Dellar and all the others too numerous to mention all ran with huge smiles on their faces and were a credit to the club

Special mentions must be made of Rita and of course Mary Lavender again who talked Brenda to death for nearly three hours in order to keep her going, which she did, running all the way without stopping to walk even though she was carrying a leg injury that had stopped her training for the last three weeks.

The conditions for this year were ideal for running and everyone said that they thoroughly enjoyed it and did better than they expected.

This race has got to be one of the best days out we've had for ages.

Thanks to everyone for making it a Brilliant Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Presentation

On Tuesday11th September, Rita presented Brenda with a trophy engraved with the words "Star Fundraiser" plus a bouquet of  flowers and a cheque for £500 as a donation from the club.

Mary Lavender and Nick Walton were also presented with flowers and similar "Star Helper" trophies.

Petra, Carrrie and Melanie were given their race trophies and a number of others shown below were given bouquets of flowers for doing exceptionally well on the day.

Carrie gave a particularly moving speech when she received her award and summed up what Dudley Ladies is all about but star of the evening without doubt was Brenda, who was moved to tears while giving her thank you speech by everyone's outstanding generosity and support.

For information about Callum, to monitor his progress or to make a donation, please click on his picture on the right or email rita@dudleyladies.co.uk