A marathon 10 years
The 2016 Medibank Melbourne Marathon will mark the 10th anniversary of the reason JMB Foundation exists, and the reason the event means so much for James Macready-Bryan, his family and supporters. James was assaulted in October 2006, on his 20th birthday, and many of you reading this will remember the horror as the extent of his injuries became clear, and the reality of his future existence – living with a permanent, catastrophic brain injury – hit home.
By February 2007 friends of James’ parents had set up the JMB Foundation. The Foundation has raised funds to help James and others in a similar situation, and advocated for ABI victims. James was a former student of Carey Baptist Grammar and the school community came together to generate support. When the Melbourne Marathon came around, hundreds of James’ friends, peers, their families and colleagues, and others who had simply heard about the cause, joined together and ran in support of James. They signed up to “run for those who can’t”. Many have been running every year since, and many more have joined the JMB team along the way.
We are very grateful for the contributions of so many, whether it has been by sweating it out in a marathon event, by sponsoring mates putting themselves through the punishing regime, by volunteering for JMB to work on the course on marathon day, by contributing to the cost of our JMB team singlets, or by helping with the organisation of the event. We hope you know who you are!
This October’s Melbourne Marathon will be our 10th, and we hope we’ll see the incredible support we’ve had for the last nine years back in full force. Fundraising from this event is the cornerstone of JMB’s grants program, allowing us to help people like Mark Wearne and many other young Australians who need our financial assistance. We wish it wasn’t so, but the demand for funds to help these young people access care and therapy is growing.
So let’s make our 10th Medibank Melbourne Marathon Festival our biggest and best yet. If you’re going to run, then run for those who can’t. There are five distances to choose from, and you can even walk for those who can’t in the 3km event if distance running is a bit much for you! Sign up now at melbournemarathon.com.au and don’t forget to start a fundraising page so your mates can sponsor you. We’ll give you a JMB shirt to run (or walk) in, so you’ll be helping to raise awareness as well as funds. If running’s not your thing, why not volunteer as a course marshal? JMB receives a significant donation in return for providing volunteers to manage the event, so you’ll be helping us – and we can guarantee you’ll enjoy the experience.
For more information go to www.jmbfoundation.org.au/2016melbmara