Club news

Stephen Dunham and Jen Sangster were this year’s male and female winners of Beat the Barge; a dash of five miles across multiple terrains. 

The club was pleased to present last year’s Charity of the Year, The Haemophilia Society, with a cheque for £6642.99 at the end of the event.

The Haemophilia Society was nominated by club member Mike King. Here is Mike’s account of the year -long partnership:

“Amazing, faith restoring, humbling and a bright future are a selection of words that summate the Haemophilia Society being the Redway Runners Charity of the Year [2016-17]. The story begins on a cold winter run at the tail end of 2015, when I started talking to Martin [club Chairman] about my then 1 year old son Henry. Henry has the rare bleeding condition of Haemophilia ix, also known as Christmas disease, and at this point in time had been on a drip every 6 hours for about a month following major surgery. I explained to Martin, whilst looping around him [on the run], that Henry was about to embark upon ground breaking treatment for his condition, in fact there would only be three young boys in the world on the same regime. At this point Martin mentioned the annual charity of the year, zip forward 6 months, and I was pitching the Haemophilia Society at the Redway Runners AGM. The amazing part was when [Haemophilia Society] were named Charity of the Year. The faith restoring refers to both the volume of support showed by the whole of the Redway Runners community in participating in the various events which contribute to the Charity of the Year cause and those lovely moments when on my regular Tuesday and Friday daytime runs my new running buddies have asked me all about Henry, Haemophilia and how they can help. The humbling aspect is concerned with the amount of money raised! The Haemophilia Society is a very small charity working to help combat a very big condition and literally every penny is essential. Leading me on to the last part, a bright future. During my pitch at the 2016 AGM, I referred to Henry being my ‘little bleeder’ and how Haemophilia was linked to the Royal Family and how this was apt with a surname like King, but I also cited that the year man was put on the moon the average life expectancy for a boy with my sons condition was 11! The work of the Haemophilia Society in fighting causes such as contaminated blood, lobbying for funding, helping with research, providing support and activities for haemophiliacs and their families and generally educating people about the condition means Henry and others will have a bright future. So thank you Martin [club Chairman] and thank you Redway Runners, you never know what a loop back will lead too.”

Redway Runners are an inclusive running club in Milton Keynes. For more information about Redway Runners, please visit www.redwayrunners.com. For more information about MK Hospital Charity, email fundraising@mkuh.nhs.uk  or call 01908 996220. For more information about the Haemophillia Society visit http://haemophilia.org.uk/.