Jennie Crawley, Aravon McCann and Karen Green before the Derry City Marathon
Brookeborough woman Jennie Crawley and Enniskillen’s Karen Green recently ran the SSE Walled City Marathon, Derry to raise funds for The Aisling Centre, Enniskillen. The ladies act of kindness raised The Aisling Centre £1,345 to go towards the services they provide.
Jennie decided to run the marathon for the centre when she became involved in running, and joined the Maguiresbridge running club since attending counselling at The Aisling Centre. Jennie along with running partner, Karen Green successfully completed the marathon and were both delighted to give something back to the centre.
“The Aisling Centre provides professional counselling and psychotherapy to both adults and children in the Fermanagh area. It is a much needed service, that relies on donations to keep the facility in place. We chose the Aisling centre as it was a charity that was very relevant to my situation, having suffered with post natal depression after my third child and then a break-down. I was going to counselling and after some encouragement from Karen I decided to join the running club. Running has really been my lifeline.” said Jenny Crawley.
The two ladies trained four or five times a week in order to prepare for the marathon and juggled their everyday life with a gruelling training schedule. They aimed to raise £500, but when the total reached £1,345 the runners were blown away by the support they received.
“We were delighted with the end total, so many of our friends, families and club members were so generous. It’s not a very big charity and it is not that well known to people so we were surprised that we managed to raise as much as we did. The Aisling centre were delighted too, they even treated us to a reflexology session as a thank you.”
On the morning of the race, Karen was faced with a difficult choice as the marathon fell on the same day as her grandmother’s funeral. Although with her family’s blessing, Karen ran and completed the marathon. Jennie was extremely proud of her running partner for completing the marathon in such difficult circumstances.
“Karen cried happy tears when she finished. I think it was just the whole emotion of what had happened and probably tiredness from her granny’s wake the previous two nights. It was a really big achievement for her.”
The girls were joined by Aravon McCann, who is also a member of the Maguiresbridge running club.
The Aisling Centre promotes positive mental health and emotional wellbeing and has helped many local people overcome a difficult time in their life. Anyone looking for information on The Aisling Centre can visit www.theaislingcentre.com/.
To read more.. Subscribe to current edition
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere