KATHMANDU: Helen O’Rourke, a 53-year-old childcarer from Consett, is preparing to take part in the Nepal marathon to raise money for charity.
She can regularly be seen running up and down hills near her home in Delves Lane to prepare her for the high-altitude run at Kakani, 20km north of Kathmandu, in the shadow of the Himalayas to be held on November 16, 2019.
O’Rourke said: “I absolutely cannot wait. It is a great adventure. “I never thought in a million years I would be going to Nepal. “I quite often just run up and down it or do Blackhill Park Run.
O’Rourke got involved because her son Mark Maughan, 29, is one of the organizers.
He said: “It is surrounded by the Himalayas and it is high-altitude. It is very hilly and is where the Ghurkas train. It is around 2,400 meters above sea level.
She said: “He showed me a video showing how beautiful it is there and after a couple of glasses of wine I said: ‘yes, I’ll do it.”
This will be O’Rouke’s sixth marathon, having completed one in Sunderland, two at Kielder and two in Sierra Leone which were also organized by Maughan when he was working for Street Child.
He now works for the Impact Marathon Series and is currently heading to Ethiopa and then the Philippines to help arrange charity marathons there.
O’Rourke will be joined by her partner Len Hagleberg, 60, who is taking on the half-marathon course, and will be leaving on November 10.
She is raising money for Burns Violence Survivors, which helps female victims of acid and fire attacks in Nepal, as well as Child Reach, which works to help stop child trafficking.
Maughan said: “There is a big problem in Nepal where women are abused with acid whether it is husbands, ex-husbands or someone in the community.
“Acid and fire is used as a real form of abuse. We go to the hospital to meet survivors and hear their stories.
“It is one of the most distressing days I have had, meeting people and seeing their scars and hearing what they have gone through.
“Child Reach do a lot of work to keep children in the school to stop them from being trafficked.”
This will be the fourth Nepal marathon and there will be 30 to 50 international runners, with 150 to 200 local runners.
Maughan said: “We do not call it a race because we do not do any timing. It is a case of taking your time and enjoying it. Anyone who does it has just completed the challenge.”
(Agencies)
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