01244 390 938
01244 390 938
A Lancashire woman is running the Cumbrian half marathon this Sunday to give back to the charity who helped achieve her dream of becoming a mum.
Claire Duncan, and her husband, welcomed their son to their family in September 2015 through adoption charity, Adoption Matters. Claire, a novice runner decided to take on the challenge of the Cumbrian Half Marathon during her adoption assessment to ‘take give her a distraction’ from the process. Little did she know that she would have a son cheering her to the finish line this Sunday.
“We first made an enquiry to Adoption Matters in November 2014. At that initial meeting we were instantly put at ease and all our (numerous!) questions were answered. We decided to formally apply and we really enjoyed the process, especially meeting other adopters and hearing their stories.
We were approved to adopt in June and were matched in August. We are very aware of how lucky we were to be matched in such a short time. Our son has been with us for nearly a month now and it has been the most incredible time. He is an absolute delight and constantly makes us smile with his amazing sense of humour and cheeky smile. The impact he has made on our lives in such a short period of time is incredible and we will be forever grateful to Adoption Matters for making our family complete.
Once we began the formal assessment process at the beginning of this year I decided that I needed to take on a challenge to provide me with a distraction so I entered the Cumbrian half marathon However, I never imagined that our son would move in with us a little over a month before the run itself! Whilst it has been a challenge over the last month to find time to go out for long training runs along with caring for a little one, I hope I have done enough to run the 13.1 miles on Sunday!
The one thing that I am sure will keep me going is the fact that my son and husband will be waiting for me at the finishing line, something I could have only ever dreamt of this time last year”.
Norman Goodwin CBE, Adoption Matters Chief Executive commented: “Thanks to Claire for sharing their story and we hope that they will be an inspiration to other prospective adopters. This is my 30th year with Adoption Matters and I will never tire of hearing how adoption enriches the lives of our adopters, their families and of course the children waiting”.
Claire has set up a fundraising page for her run, to support her visit: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/claireduncan1
For more information on adoption click www.adoptionmatters.org or contact us on 0300 123 1066.
We are holding a series of recruitment events during National Adoption Week for interested prospective adopters to attend – why not come along and meet our team and some of our adopters at one of these events:
Wednesday 21 October – 12-7pm, Warrington Warrington Hospital – an opportunity to find out more about our award winning Adoption Support services.
Thursday 22 October- 6-7:30pm Chester & Blackburn
Chester: Mark Mitchell Mazda Showroom Stanney Mill Lane, Cheshire Oaks, Chester CH2 4RG
Blackburn: Adoption Matters Office, 2nd Floor, 50-54 Church Street, Blackburn, BB1 5AL
Sunday 25 October – 12-6pm Manchester – outside John Lewis at The Trafford Centre, Manchester
