As I left you previously, we had a manic week trying to organise the Hope Ward Fun Run. After all the radio interviews, posting posters all over Kampala and bribing everyone we knew to come, nothing more could be done and when I went to bed on the night before I was more than a little concerned about what would happen the next day.
Sunday morning arrived very early for me. At 6am I picked up Dr Richard and drove to the Start line to see if anyone had turned up and to continue our last-minute preparations. As I was worrying about the situation, I looked up to see the most amazing sunrise and a double rainbow – perhaps we could pull this off. The starting point was at Lugogo shopping mall, and thankfully although we were really early there were already some people wandering around in yellow “Run for Hope” t-shirts. The plan was that Richard and I would staff the Late Registration desk – although it appeared that we didn’t in fact have a desk. Instead, we opened the back of the car, stuck posters all over Ursula and had a Late Registration boot!
As the start time of 8am approached the area turned more and more yellow and the Late Registration boot was doing a roaring trade. We were also approached by the police, who had been paid a generous sum to police the route, who asked us what the route actually was! (Good to see that they paid attention in the meeting.) Before I was even aware, the PA system kicked into action, the running group gathered and they were off – in the wrong direction being chased by a rather unprepared police force!
Now that we had a bit of time to gather ourselves, we unloaded our freshly-printed Hope Ward newsletters to give the successful runners. Despite the runners having set off and pounding their way around the 10K route, the business at the Ursula Late Registration boot was still brisk. The registration fee for the run was 5000 shillings and you got a free t-shirt, however the cost of a new t-shirt in Uganda is usually 10,000 so the locals who didn’t want to run (and to be fair, who wants to run 10k on the equator?) were still very interested in the bargain t-shirts. I never knew that I had an east end trader hidden in me but I was soon doing a roaring trade in “Run for Hope” t-shirts. Every little helps!
The first runners came through after only 35 minutes, and the 1st Prize of a Hotpoint electric kettle was well received. The rest of the runners weren’t far behind and I was very impressed to see Dan sprint across the Finish line in 54 minutes, the boy is getting into his running! I continued selling t-shirts while the last few runners trudged across the Finish line. It was great to see people wandering off reading their newsletters, and we even had people come to ask for more newsletters to give to their friends. After a long day I headed home and even managed to sell a few more t-shirts to the boda-boda guys at the end of our road!
Back at work on Monday morning, it was time to find out how much our efforts had raised. We’d sold about 250 places and had another 40 turn up on the day (I’m sure it was due to my radio debut!) At the last count we’d raised about 3.5 million shillings (just over 1,000 pounds). Makes you wonder what we could have achieved given more time… All in all hard work but definitely worth it as the Fun Run has helped to raise the profile of Hope Ward within Uganda. Special thanks go to Richard and Jemimah, who worked so hard to make it happen.
I would also like to add a big Thank You to Clive, Dan’s dad, and to Canon Palmer Secondary School in Redbridge, for all their fundraising efforts for Hope Ward, which have raised over 400 pounds. This will go a long way to ensuring that we can have at least 10 beds open until the end of the year. Thank you everyone!
Well Done Grania – great job. That was a brilliant time Dan, nearly as good as mine, will definitely sponsor you!