They live together, work together, and now they run marathons for charity together, now that’s #friendshipgoals.
Meghan and Brendan decided to run the Queenstown marathon as a fundraiser for Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP during their daily exercise in lockdown.
Since then, their preparations have had ups and downs, with injuries and achievements keeping the past few months interesting for the pair. For Brendan, this is the first time entering an event such as this, but the motivation from Meghan and the multitude of messages and donations are keeping him on track (no pun intended).
“I’ll read through all the messages in the morning before running,” he said. Meghan said that reading the messages of support amazed her and made her quite emotional.
So far, the pair have raised more $2,500, which means more than $50 per kilometre they run! They are also striving to raise awareness for HELP, which is a charity close to the hearts of both Meghan and Brendan.
HELP provides support, counselling, and other therapy services to anyone who has experienced rape or sexual abuse.
“HELP is an organisation that I wish I knew about before my sexual assault. So by doing this fundraising I hope that we can not only provide funds for HELP but also open up the discussion about these experiences which effect far too many people,” Meghan said.
For Meghan, fundraising for HELP has been “incredibly rewarding but also a little uncomfortable.” Until recently she had never spoken up about her own sexual assault, but she says, “explaining why I wanted to do this to friends like Brendan has made me feel vulnerable, but it’s also been incredibly powerful and I feel like I am taking some control of my experiences back.”
To anyone considering doing a similar fundraiser, Meghan says to just do it. “I think it was something that I put off for so long because I thought it was something that I thought would be so hard to organise, but actually it’s been really easy."
If you would like to support Meghan and Brendan, you can donate to their registry here.
If you would like to know more about the work HELP does, you can read about them here.
Or if you’d like to start a registry for a charity, whether that's for a wedding, a birthday .. or for running 42.2 km like Meghan and Brendan ... you can do that here.
- By Caitlin Turner
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