Daniel Fitzgerald will be running the half-marathon, along his wife Brooke, to raise awareness about spinal muscular atrophy, the devastating medical condition their baby Violet was born with.
In February this year, when she was just 11 weeks old, Violet received a $2.2 million infusion of a gene therapy medication in a US hospital.
The Fitzgeralds will be running in personalised tanktops to promote the Cure SMA charity, which they said have been incredibly helpful to their family.
They had hoped that Violet, who turns one on 30 Nov., could have joined them in the marathon, but it’s not looking likely.
“My intention at the start when we signed up was to do it with Violet but she is not strong enough to stay in her stroller for that long. Maybe next year, when she’s stronger, we can do it with her,” Daniel said.
For the parents, who are just getting back into an exercise routine, Violet is the inspiration for taking part in the marathon.
“Violet is doing really well. We see how hard she is working every day to try and get stronger as she does her physical therapy and when Brooke and I work with her,” Daniel said. “She is so determined to get stronger.
“People take for granted that they are able to run and walk and exercise… We are able to do this marathon. She’s our motivation – the fact that she is trying so hard to get to where she wants to be.”
He added, “Hopefully, she will be able to walk some day. We know she will be in a wheelchair at least for the first years of her life, maybe until she is 5 years old, maybe longer, but there is no guarantee she will ever be able to walk. It is my motivation to get up at 6am and go for a walk or run.”
The Fitzgeralds spent the first four months of this year in the US with their baby, and the subsequent months getting back to work and getting into a routine of taking Violet to physical or occupational therapy four times a week.
Daniel says it was only about a month ago that they started to incorporate exercise regularly back into their lives.
This will be his third half-marathon. He ran his first in Cayman in 2019, and then in 2020, while stuck in isolation in the Holiday Inn hotel during the COVID pandemic, he ran 13.1 miles inside his room to raise funds for the charity ARK and to deal with the monotony of quarantine.
- The Compass ‘Why we run’ series aims to celebrate the personal stories of those who compete in the Cayman Islands Marathon. If you have an interesting or inspiring story about the race, email us at [email protected].
Related Videos
