Stuart Family take on the Queenstown Marathon for the Heart Foundation

This November, our family are flying to Queenstown to run a Marathon and raise money for the Heart Foundation.

It's the first time any of us will have done anything like this, and while it's a pretty daunting challenge we're meeting it head on. We're lacing up our sneakers in memory of our father/husband Craig Stuart, who left us too soon due to an undiagnosed heart disease.

Craig ran more than a few marathons in his time and the top photo shows our family in 2007, when we drove to Rotorua to support Dad as he completed his third event. We ran the five km, while he took on the full forty-two. His best time was 3 hours, 37 minutes - our time to beat?

Ten years on, we want to honour Dad's memory by coming together, hitting the pavement, and raising money for a great cause. It's going to be a fun but challenging weekend and we'd love you to be part of the journey.

Running a marathon is no small feat. However it’s nothing compared to the burden of heart disease felt by 200,000 Kiwis a year. Heart disease remains one of the leading causes of death in New Zealand and we think the Heart Foundation does some pretty amazing work tackling the issue.

As a family, we're hoping to raise as much as we can or the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated and helped us to achieve a whooping $3000 for the Heart Foundation. Your messages of support have been amazing too.

Let's see how far we can go. Bring on race day!

The Stuart Family

(Lisa, Tom, Hannah and Matt)