A big thank you goes out to all the families and friends who came out to support the “Mums on the Run!” running in the Brentwood Half Marathon & Fun Run.
The Brentwood Gazette included a nice photo of our younger supporters in their photo gallery.
The Yellow Advertiser printed a photo of our supporters in their double-page article.
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This is the only way I can comfortably communicate at the moment, having a very sore throat and lost my voice! Felt ok yesterday, but it obviously takes a little longer to ricoshay (I know it’s not spelt that way, but how?!) through the body. Huge respect to Jenny, Laurie, Claire and all those who ran a lot further than us Fun Runners. Yes, it was quite fun, helped by a great atmosphere, especially with our mad band of supporters led by Jane and 11 crazy kids! Thanks to everyone who sponsored or is about to (Robert?!) as it’s a great cause close to my heart. There are plenty of photos not taken or uploaded by me to Facebook etc by Laurie and Jane so I’m just enjoying looking at those and wondering if I’ll do it again sometime…
Enough, I need to rest!
Lucy
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Our “Mums on the Run!” put in a fantastic effort on Sunday, 21st March, running a combined 57 miles (that’s more than 2 marathons back-to-back!) in the Brentwood Half Marathon & Fun Run.
The good news – the results!
The best news – you helped us achieve our fundraising target (and then some!)
We had hoped to raise £100 for the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline (0300 330 0771). In fact, we’ve now raised £211 and there’s more money coming in.
So thank you, thank you, thank you for your generous donations to our charity fundraising efforts on http://www.justgiving.com/brentwoodnct. £2 underwrites the cost of a single call to the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline.
With your help, we’ve raised enough for the NCT to provide over 90 women with information & support related to breastfeeding. Just this past week, we heard the personal stories of how the Helpline directly assisted Brentwood-area mums , which was a great motivation to us to achieve personal bests in both our running and fundraising.
Thanks to all the “Mums on the Run!” supporters, too
Thanks as well to all the family and friends who came out to support “Mums on the Run!”. The day wouldn’t have been nearly so much fun without a big crowd cheering us on (and providing lashings of tea & cocoa at the finish line!).
On a personal note, for those of you who stuck around for me and Claire to come in, I salute you – it was a long ol’ wait (especially for those of with small children in tow) but spotting the NCT placards and then seeing so many smiling, encouraging faces at the end really gave us that spurt of energy to carry on!!
-Laurie
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I too am getting excited now and hoping I can get everything together on time in the morning. I’m hoping the excitement – and the cheering! – will carry me the extra mile as I’ve not managed all 3 miles in training. I’m also regretting having worn my best shoes for a presentation I did on Thursday as I now have a big blister on my heel. Still, plasters at the ready, here I go…
-Karen
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My Chief Supporter role is hotting up today! I have to collect a variety of flasks as well as construct some kind of window decoration for the house. Oh yes it’s a busy day today!
And, most excitingly, I am now in possession of 10 green bibs for my ladies to wear tomorrow! Hurrah! And with Renate’s masterpiece adorning them the bibs will surely look nothing short of spectatcular!
Right, must dash to practise my tea making skills a bit more, and before I type any more exclamation marks! Oops – too late!
Mums on the Run rock!
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Went out for a relaxing run through Thorndon today with my favourite training partner, Bramley. I promise this isn’t an excuse just to put up a picture of my dog. No, I lie. I just have to show you this photo – isn’t he the cutest pooch you’ve ever seen?
-Laurie
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…and still not sure about the shoes. Having damaged my ankle at the Nearly New Sale on 6 March, I had been hobbling about in slippers and banished all ideas of running 3 miles. However, felt better this week and armed (should be footed) with my new new trainers size 7 (as opposed to the old new trainers size 5.5) set off for a run after carefully changing from Pilates flappy trousers to husbands old trackky bums. After about a mile of chafing I realised I had forgotten to change into my boob flattener – that’s my excuse for only making 2 miles anyway. New new trainers still feel too small as was loosing feeling in toes by the end – how on earth do they survive 10 miles plus? Have already consulted guru Jenny on this. Please do support the NCT helpline – it made a huge difference to my life, and probably Rosie’s too.
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We started our breastfeeding peer supporter training this week. By the time we finish the course in May, we will be qualified to work as peer supporters at the Breast Friends Cafe, which is running every Wednesday (12:30-2:00pm) at the Cherry Trees Children’s Centre.
The peer supporter training course has 4 “Mums on the Run!” team members on it as well: myself, Jane, Karen and Lucy . Jo, a peer supporter trainee, was supposed to have been on the team but had to drop out with the very happy excuse of expecting her second child.
As you’ll know from reading my earlier “begging” columns, we’re running to raise money for the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline (0300 330 0771). As we went ’round the training classroom and introduced ourselves and spoke about our own breastfeeding experiences, it was GREAT to hear what a difference the Helpline has made to so many lives.
Half (yep, 50%!) of our training group had called the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline in the very early days of motherhood and that ONE PHONE CALL had been the TURNING POINT in the mothers continuing to breastfeed. You see, the Helpline had put each of the mothers in touch with Merrill Knight (or “Saint Merrill” as we are now going to call her), the Brentwood/Billericay-based NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor. And Merrill personally visited with each mother and provided essential one-on-one support.
Breastfeeding, though natural, is not always easy. Each mother’s circumstances are different – charities such as the NCT provide that crucial, personal support that mums need in the early days of parenthood.
Hearing about the very direct impact that the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline has made in the lives of so many Brentwood-area mums was SO INSPIRATIONAL. Thinking about their stories will keep me going during that difficult stretch of the route between miles 7 to 10.
If you haven’t given yet, do you think you could spare £2 – the cost of a cup of coffee – to underwrite the cost of a call to the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline?
http://www.justgiving.com/brentwoodnct
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Last training run DONE!
The 1st mile: Parts like a “spring energised kid”, others good.
The 2nd mile: Parts good and the rest ok.
The 3rd mile!: Everything in it, I really don’t know why I would want to do more than 3….
As I have only done 1 race in my life before, which was the Brentwood Fun Run 7 years ago, I either was very fit or the distance they state is longer than the actual race. I am still hoping that I will be finished after 2 of my miles, thinking that wasn’t too bad….
I have £7 pledged towards our target, for finishing the race “running”! Let’s see…
And Julia is just cool, she seriously believes Mummy could win this race; just as well that she will be there on Sunday to see what it’s like!
-Renate
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Today 9 ladies got together for their first training session towards becoming breastfeeding peer supporters. The aim being that we will all be able to support our local breastfeeding cafes. For me, that will be the cafe, newly launched in partnership with the Sure Start children’s centres, at the Cherry Trees Children’s Centre in Knights Way in Brentwood every Wednesday from 12.30pm till 2pm.
This is an exciting development for the NCT in Brentwood as it is something we’ve had on our ‘To Do’ list for quite a while now. So to actually be sitting there today, with 4 other ladies from our committee, was brilliant and gave me a real sense that we are close to achieving our objective.
Whilst there is fantastic support in the area from the dedicated NCT breastfeeding counsellors (available to members and non members alike on 0300 3300771) and a great chance to meet up at the Bumps & Babes group (run by one of our breastfeeding counsellors Tracy, on Thursday afternoons, 1pm till 3pm, at Sawyers Hall Church) it is wonderful that we can now offer even more ways to support mums when breastfeeding. It is something that can be such a different experience for different people and which many people give up on due to a lack of support and guidance. All of us in the room today discussed our own breastfeeding experiences, which not only varied imensely but that I found invaluable as a reminder as to why we need to offer this support. I also left feeling very inspired by the stories I heard.
We shall we fully trained in 3 months time and are looking forward to supporting mums at the cafes. In the meantime we’ll keep you updated with how the training progresses.
If you are interested in becoming a peer supporter yourself then please look on our website at www.nct.org.uk/brentwood for more details.
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