Photograph Liam Burke/Press 22
by Kathy Masterson
A MURROE man gave up smoking two years ago and started running to raise funds for premature babies, after being inspired by the work of the staff in Limerick Maternity Hospital’s Neo Natal unit.
Ger Thompson (36) is set to run the London Marathon on April 26 for Bliss, a UK-based charity for premature babies.
To date, he has raised more than €11,000 between Bliss and the neo natal unit in Limerick.
Sadly, Ger’s fundraising was inspired by personal tragedy, after his wife Noreen suffered seven miscarriages in ten years, as well as the heartbreaking death of their first baby girl Kayla in 2009 at 22 weeks old.
In 2012, Noreen gave birth to the couple’s “miracle baby”, Ellianna Hope, who spent two and a half weeks in the neo natal unit in Limerick Maternity Hospital.
“After we brought Ellianna home, I gave up the cigarettes, and then I said I’d run a marathon to raise funds for premature babies. I was overweight and everything and people laughed at me when I told them. But if people tell me I can’t do something, then I just have to go and do it, so I went about training. The first time I ran a kilometre I got sick everywhere, but I kept at it and I ran the Dublin City Marathon in 2013,” Ger told the Limerick Post.
He said he wanted to raise funds for the neo natal unit because he was so grateful for the care his daughter received there in her first weeks of life.
He added: “Until you have had a premature baby, you just don’t understand the work that they do in there.”
After the London Marathon, which Ger plans to complete in less than four hours, he hopes to “raise money for premature babies around the world” if he can find sponsorship to take part in the New York and Boston marathons.
In addition to running marathons, and founding a Halloween Ball in memory of Kayla, Ger is also studying for his Junior Certificate as a mature student.
“I’m in school from 9am until 2.45pm every day, after that I go home for my dinner then I’m in work from 4pm until 7pm. When I get home in the evening I get changed and go running from 7.30pm until 9pm. It’s tortuous, I barely get to see my little one at the moment,” Ger revealed.
Anyone interested in sponsoring Ger Thompson can email him at [email protected].
