The Rainey Family – 100K Your Way

Grace Rainey and her father Denis recently took part in our 100K Your Way Challenge, raising a fantastic £1,145.00 to support our work.

Grace, who is currently studying for a PGCE, was inspired to take on the challenge after a number of her close relatives were diagnosed with cancer.

Grace’s grandmother underwent cancer treatment during lockdown following earlier treatment in 2017 and sadly, her great-aunt passed away this January after battling ovarian cancer since 2017. Then, in January 2020 Grace’s mum, Louise, was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment last year. Her mum is still receiving treatment, but is on the road to recovery.

Explaining why she choose the 100K Your Way Challenge, Grace said :

“ Over the last year, my family has been impacted by cancer. It was a tough time and the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown made it even worse. When I heard about the ‘100km Your Way Challenge’ I decided it would be a good way of trying to help other people who are facing the same problems that my family faced.

Grace’s dad, Denis, completed the challenge with her.

“ My dad was a great encouragement and we enjoyed going on the runs around parks close to our home. We started doing 4km, built it up to 5km and then were doing 6km distances. We plan to continue running together.”

Denis adds: “I’m really proud of Grace for taking on this challenge. I wanted to support her as it was being done to help people like my wife and my mother”.

Grace’s mum, Louise is clearly very proud of them both, saying : “I’m proud of Grace and Denis for taking on the challenge. Friends of the Cancer Centre offers support to people like me, who have been diagnosed with cancer. I received fantastic support from the team in the Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital and I can’t thank them enough. The charity has been hit hard over the past year, so hopefully this money will go some way to providing their vital services.”

We would like to say a huge thank you to the Rainey family for sharing their story and for raising so much money and awareness for the charity.

If you have been inspired and want to take part in the 100K Your Way challenge, you can sign up now at https://bit.ly/3vxDHoI or get in touch with our fundraising team at [email protected].