General News
13 October, 2022
Ruby runs to raise funds
Fifty two residents lose their battle with cancer every year in the Central Goldfields Shire and that’s exactly the number of kilometres teenager Ruby Adams ran last week, as part of a fundraiser that hits very close to home. Rain, hail or shine...
Fifty two residents lose their battle with cancer every year in the Central Goldfields Shire and that’s exactly the number of kilometres teenager Ruby Adams ran last week, as part of a fundraiser that hits very close to home.
Rain, hail or shine, nothing was getting between Ruby and her goal of running 52 kilometres, with the 15-year-old logging at least 7.42 km each day last week.
The marathon effort was symbolic of the 52 residents who lose their lives to cancer each year, according to Victorian Cancer Registry Data, with Ruby also raising money for the Maryborough District Health Service’s palliative care suite.
All for a good cause, the fundraiser also has a special meaning for Ruby and her family, with her grandfather, Jock Adams, passing away from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2017.
“I wanted to do this for pa and there are a lot of people who have touched our family who have had cancer as well,” Ruby said.
“You don’t realise how many people do have cancer or have had cancer, there are so many people and pa was a big part of my life.”
The fundraiser came about through Highview College’s STRIVE program, which sees students create their own project and push themselves out of their comfort zones for personal development.
Ruby said she wanted to do something meaningful, but also something that would make a difference in the community.
“I was going to do a 10 kilometre run in Melbourne but that was a bit far out of my comfort zone and it was too hard to get there,” she said.
“I then thought I’d do a 10 km run here but it wouldn’t really tie in with raising money for cancer and I wanted it to be something special.
“I did some research about the number of people who die each year because of cancer locally and figured I’d run a kilometre for each of them.
“I’d always start or finish my run at the hospital because that’s what I was raising money for and each day I ran, I wore a different colour to symbolise different types of cancer, for example I’d wear pink and have a pink ribbon in my hair to symbolise breast cancer.”
Ruby’s fundraiser has touched plenty of community members, with the fundraiser receiving an outpouring of support and the amount of money she’s raised sitting at more than $5600.
“I thought I’d make $200 so I am very surprised by the amount that’s been raised,” she said.
“This is the longest I’ve run in ages, I was definitely pushing myself and I found the first two days were alright, but the third day was really hard.
“I had to remind myself what I was running for and after that it was a lot easier.”
Ruby’s fundraiser will remain open until this Sunday, October 16 and donations can be made at www.gofundme.com/f/rubys-52km-run-in-7-days
