Andrew’s alumnus Brett Farago (Fr 2005) is in the middle of running 100 half marathons in 100 days to raise awareness and funds for people with dementia and to assist scientists in delaying, preventing and ultimately finding a cure for the disease.
Brett has set himself a goal to raise over $50,000 to support the work of Dementia Australia. The organisation was founded more than 35 years ago in order to support and empower the estimated half a million Australians living with dementia and almost 1.6 million people involved in their care. Dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia yet remains one of the most challenging and misunderstood conditions. Dementia Australia is the national peak body for people impacted by the disease in Australia.
Brett’s motivations came about after his mother was diagnosed at an early age with the condition. His aim is to ‘create awareness and get funds together to ultimately assist in finding a cure to benefit future generations as people are dying too young from it. A lot of people are impacted by dementia and medically, there is a lot of work still to be done in this space.’
Finding time to complete the runs has not been easy; Brett works full time and has a busy home life with a three year old daughter and another baby on the way! However, Brett is up to the challenge. He finds time before work, sometimes getting up at 4.30am, and on the weekends to complete his runs. The total distance at the end of the 100 days, which he is expected to finish in mid-July, will be around 2200kms. Brett is up to day 66 of his challenge and has run over 1400kms (tracked on Strava). On day 50 he ran a full marathon and on day 100 he is looking to run a 100km ultra marathon, to finish with something big!
Just to add to his already impressive endeavour, Brett will also attempt to break the world record for the most consecutive half marathons completed in a row by adding a few extra runs on top of the 100.
To date Brett has raised $10,304 for Dementia Australia. To support his cause and help him reach his goal please follow this link to reach his donation page.
If you would like to track Brett’s journey on Instagram follow @brett_farago.
We wish Brett the best of luck and hope he achieves his goal.