Marathon Man

Have you ever wondered what inspires a person to run his first marathon? For Tony Whitmore it wasn’t just his mother-in-law’s laughter at the thought of him running, but his sponsored child Gerald.

Since 2004, Tony has been sponsoring Gerald’s who lives in North Rukiga in Uganda. “I wanted to do more to help Gerald’s community and perhaps even to understand the daily challenges they face so I set a challenge of my own – to run the Adidas Dublin Marathon in 2008.”

Tony's challenges

Tony had never run a marathon before and not only did he complete it in a staggering time of 3 hours and 41 minutes, he also raised a jaw-dropping €11,600 for World Vision! Tony asked us to use the money to sponsor five additional children for seven years each in the name of his family members and the remainder was to go to Gerald’s community as a gift of a new school roof.

You would think that this achievement would be enough for Tony to rest on his laurels. But he decided to challenge himself again. This time he completed the Achill Half-Marathon in July 2010 and raised another €1,005. “The donation is a gift to Gerald’s community in Uganda. They will decide how best to invest it – perhaps another school improvement, a health or a water project. Whichever they decide on, I know that it will make a great difference to everyone in the community and World Vision will tell me exactly how the money was spent.”

What's next?

So what’s next for our World Vision Marathon Man? “After each race, I think that’s it – no more. But then I get a letter from Gerald or an update from his community and it inspires me to run another event. So right now I’m in training for a triathlon in 2011.”

If you’ve ever thought about fundraising for World Vision get in touch with our Customer Care Team who will be delighted to give you ideas, support and provide you with everything you need for a successful fundraising drive. Call 01 498 0800 or email us.