By Catherine Cunningham
Today, on Liverpool City Centre’s waterfront, 8,500 competitors took place in Liverpool’s 21st Half Marathon. 3 of those runners were Stephen Buckley, 26, Nicky McGrane, 26 and Rebecca Loughlin, 24. They were running to raise money for Claire House Children’s Hospice, a home that offers families respite care for young people with life threatening illnesses.
The race started at 9:00 am on 23/03/2014. There were over 8,500 runners.
The cause was chosen because Stephen’s brother David is 24 and still receives care from Claire House. The house does not normally offer care for a patient this grown up, however after the amount of time they have all spent together, they still help him with his struggle with muscular dystrophy.
Stephen and Nicky are actually running 3 half marathons to raise money for the cause, on 3 consecutive Sunday’s- today they ran Liverpool’s waterfront, next week they ar
Stephen Buckley at a fundraiser for Claire House at The Casa Liverpool.
e flying over to Berlin for their half marathon, and in two weeks they will run the coast of Blackpool, all in the name of charity. As well as the sponsored runs, Stephen organised a fundraiser in The Casa, Liverpool, where music was played, food served and a raffle held. Between all the different efforts, £1,120 has been raised for the house, an invaluable amount as it does not receive government funding. Ste said that it wasn’t all about the money raised for the house, but the help that people gave to get the charity known, and to help organise events like the party at The Casa- he gave particular thanks to Terry Petit.
The participants all did the half marathon this morning in roughly 2 hours, and Nicky was hopeful about the other runs. Liverpool Football Club manager Brendan Rodgers opened the race, and was due to take part but had to pull out due to a knee injury, which he has said made him immensely disappointed.
The Liverpool Line 