Fundraising
Brockley Butterflies take on the London Marathon
Lots of people contacted us about the 'yellow butterflies' that they saw being interviewed at the London Marathon and talking about lupus. They asked if they were running for the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust and indeed they were. Here's Fintan's story about why they took part for us: At the 2007 London marathon Seana Culwin was handing out water at the 8 mile water station, as she had done for several years. Among those she handed water to were her father Fintan, a regular marathon runner, and her step-mother Maria, running her first marathon. Alongside her, also handing out water, were her sister Leah and the children of her friend Cathy. Neither Seana, nor anyone else at that time, knew that she had systematic lupus erythematosus.
The disease attacked in June, she spent most of July in intensive care and died aged just 26 on the 29th July.
At the 2008 London marathon Fintan, Maria, Leah and Cathy dressed as yellow butterflies and ran in her memory and Cathy's children were again at the 8 mile water station handing out water. For Leah and Cathy it was their first ever marathon, Maria's second and Fintan's seventh consecutive London. Seana lived in Brockley in South East London and we called ourselves the Brockley Butterflies.
The day was a mixture of emotions for the butterflies. At many points, but particularly at the start, end and 8 mile station; memories of Seana supporting at previous marathons brought tears. But the sheer thrill of running the London marathon in fancy dress brought out huge support from the massed ranks of spectators.
The purpose of marathon fancy dress is to get you noticed, and the people to get noticed by are the BBC. The butterflies were stopped twice by the BBC, once at the Cutty Sark and again, independently, on Tower Bridge. Although it was not broadcast live, the Tower Bridge interview featured on the evening highlights programme. (If you would like to see it search for "Seana Culwin" on youtube.)
The final words of the interviewer on Tower Bridge were that Seana would have been proud of us. Indeed she would, all of us crossed the line together in 5 hours 40 minutes, nearly an hour faster than Maria's previous marathon. So far about £5,000 has been raised in sponsorship and Lupus awareness benefited from the BBC interview. The Brockley Butterflies have already been seen again at the local Brockley Fun Run and are planning to be at the Southwater Triathlon in September. The 2009 London marathon? Fintan has already arranged his place, the others are still undecided.
A huge thank you to the Brockley Butterflies, keep a look out for them at other events as I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them!
