Running Aotearoa for kids with Cerebral Palsy

In 2017 I met an inspirational girl named Liv on Facebook. Liv has spastic diplegic cerebral palsy and needed Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery to enable her to move freer and potentially walk unaided. Liv's surgery was performed in America and the cost was $150,000 of which none of this is funded by the government. I reached out to Liv's family and offered my help in fundraising. After rallying the CrossFit Gyms in Hawkes Bay we helped liv on her way to America and she got her surgery that year. Liv is now 15 and has greatly improved because of the SDR surgery, she is awesome and is a huge inspiration for others needing the surgery.

In 2019 following surgery on my spine I took up ultra running. This led me to running the Blue Lake 24hr Challenge in Rotorua where I ran 115.5km raising money for 3 children Ethan, Reid and Zach. In February 2020 I ran the Great Lake Relay solo around Lake Taupo, 155km in 24hrs, 14min and raised money for Faith. September 2020 I was back at the Blue Lake to run 140km in 24hrs to raise money for Valentin and Lydia. The start of this year saw me back in Taupo with a time of 22hrs 15min to raise money for Lydia again.

All these kids have had surgery and it has made a huge improvement to their life and their family. The rest of the year sees me running the Blue Lake again at the end of September for 36hrs and aiming for 200km and then starting at Cape Reinga on the 5th of December and running down NZ to Bluff over Christmas and New Years. I will be aiming for approximately 50km per day for 40 days on SH1 when possible.

Families with cerebral palsy children who need SDR surgery are part of a close knit group on Facebook and I have contacted them to identify who is currently fundraising for surgery. So far 3 families have been identified to raise money for on my Aotearoa run but this may go up as more families are identified. My goal is to raise over $20,000 which will be split evenly between each family. If you need any more information please do not hesitate to contact me.

You can follow me on Instagram: andrew.mccrory.ultra.runner and Facebook: Running Aotearoa For SDR