An Edinburgh man has given back an astonishing figure to the Sick Kids hospital after watching his brother spend most of his childhood in and out of the wards.
Graham Bow, 39, was desperate to help the hospital after losing his brother Stuart ten years ago in 2011 after he was born with a rare metabolic disorder.
Now living in Broxburn, Graham explained that the family had been frequent visitors to the Sick Kids as doctors worked to manage Stuart's condition.
Called Galactosemia, the only treatment for the disorder was to fully eliminate galactose and lactose from Stuart's diet.
He spent many years in and out of the Sick Kids outpatients, where he was helped to carefully manage his diet to live a near normal life, which in those days was a much more difficult task than it is today.
Graham said: “Edinburgh's Children’s Hospital played a big part in Stuart’s infancy, assisting my parents to understand a condition that at this time was relatively unknown."
In a move to show his appreciation for the hospital, Graham had signed up for the 2020 Edinburgh Marathon to raise funds for the ECHC, however when the event was cancelled he chose to still complete the task on his home treadmill.
A dedicated runner, Graham was able to raise a staggering £21,404.84 for children in hospital today.
He added: "I took on this challenge to give something back in some way and to support not only the children at the hospital but also their families who rely on the care and dedication of the doctors, consultants, nurses and wider support staff.
“I wasn’t sure if the Marathon would go ahead for 2021 and I’d had a couple of emails through from Edinburgh Marathon Festival in the last few weeks encouraging people to tackle virtual events instead, so I thought ‘why not?’.
“The deadline to participate in the virtual marathon for the 2020 medal was end of January 2021 and with 1 week to go I thought I can still do this. I completed the half marathon challenge on the Monday, then the 5km on Tuesday, then on Thursday I went for and completed the 10km event. by Friday I was exhausted but I knew I had to overcome this to attempt the full marathon so on Saturday I got on the treadmill, started running and the rest is history!
"I’m grateful to my family, colleagues, friends and Gordon Bow Plant Hire who supported me and assisted in raising this fantastic amount.”
Overwhelmed by the donation, Victoria Buchanan, from ECHC, said: “We are enormously thankful to Graham for taking on this mammoth challenge and for raising such a phenomenal amount for ECHC. Running an outdoor marathon is hard enough, never mind running one on a home treadmill!
“It is the compassion and dedication of supporters like Graham that enables us to continue to support children and young people in hospital and healthcare throughout the duration of the pandemic and beyond.
“We have seen so many fantastic virtual fundraising challenges over the past year and we applaud Graham for his stamina, his strong legs and his even stronger heart.”
