Running For Premature Babies Fundraising Group Blasts Sydney Half Marathon

When the runners lined up for the Sydney Half Marathon on Sunday, there were a number running to fundraise, but none who made quite the same impact as the Running For Premature Babies group.

A total of 527 runners donned the purple shirt of the Running For Premature Babies group, which has been raising funds to help premature babies for 10 years now. The group was started in 2006 when Sophie Smith gave birth to triplet sons, Henry, Jasper and Evan. Tragically the little triplets, each born weighing under a kilo, did not survive, prompting Sophie and her husband Ash to take action to ensure their sons would never be forgotten.

They started a trust fund in the boys’ names, in partnership with Royal Hospital for Women Foundation, dedicated to raising funds for necessary equipment and research in the hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Centre. Around 1000 premature and critically ill babies find their way to the Newborn Intensive Care Centre every year, and the funds raise have a direct impact on the running of the centre.

via RFPB Facebook Page

Then just nine months after the birth of the triplets, Sophie and Ash decided to run the Sydney Half Marathon with a small team of 98 supporters, raising $80,000 for the hospital. In 2016 that team numbered more than 520 people, and resulted in one of their largest fundraising drives ever. Not only was Running For Premature Babies the largest fundraising team at the Half Marathon, they were also the most successful, raising an enormous $330,000 of the events $715,000 raised. This brings the total amount that Running For Premature Babies has raised over 10 years to almost $2 million. It’s an enormous success for the group, and for Sophie, who can be sure that her sons will never be forgotten.

What RFPB Has Achieved

In the years since 2007 Running For Premature Babies have done so much for premature babies and their families. More than 2,000 runners have joined the team, 29 pieces of life saving equipment has been funded for the Royal’s NICU, along with important research into the care of premature babies. Thanks to that equipment 10,000 babies have directly benefited, including 1,500 who were born extremely prematurely at less than 28 weeks, and the group has enabled the hospital to achieve much improved outcomes. In fact, the Royal is now rated as one of the best in the state in terms of the equipment available.

via Sophie Smith

The Runners

There are a number of reasons to join the Running For Premature Babies group, which is now more of a community than ever before. The group sets fundraising goals as well as fitness ones, and helps the team to achieve both goals together. Runners who join the team don’t just have a chance to get fit and save lives, they also get a 16 week training program led by exercise physiologist Mandi O’Sullivan-Jones with regular meet-ups, a Running Bare team singlet and cap, an invite to the many social events that the RFPB group holds throughout the year, including the famed afterparty, and prizes for the fastest runner, the most dedicated, the most inspiring and the most improved. Sophie told us that the runners in RFPB form strong friendship bonds as a part of the group, and there has even been a RFPB wedding!

All the runners have to do commit themselves to raising a minimum of $100 in donations for the fund, which from the fundraising total over the last decade, they clearly do very well.

In Memory

This year Sophie wasn’t just running for her triplet sons, but also for her husband. Ash was the one who encouraged Sophie to run the Half Marathon in 2007 to raise money for the triplet’s trust, and he was at her side every year following. In 2008 he was diagnosed with brain cancer, just weeks after running his personal best of 98 minutes. Just two years later he returned to the race, running it in just 2 hours. Even in 2015 he ran, after brain surgery and chemo, with he and Sophie crossing the line together. This year however, Sophie ran the race without him. We talked to her about this year’s race:

“I dedicated my race to my late husband Ash who lost his battle with brain cancer 12 weeks ago. I ran faster than I’ve ever run, smashing my PB which I set on our very first ever RFPB half marathon ten years ago!” Sophie said.

“Every year I tell our runners that when the going gets tough in the race to remember Henry, Jasper and Evan’s handprints on the backs of their shirts pushing them along. Yesterday I felt like I flew around the course, and felt like I had not just my little boys but also my amazing husband with me all the way around the the 21.1km.”

via Sophie Smith

What’s Coming Next

The Half Marathon is just the start of 2016 for the Running For Premature Babies group. They have a number of events running this year, including the Kids RFPB Fun Run on the 20th of August in Grant Reserve, Coogee, on what would have been the triplets 10th birthday. Sophie hopes the kids run will become a “popular annual event in Coogee” noting that the group invites “all children who began their lives in the NICU at The Royal in Randwick, as well as any other kids who’d like to come along and join the fun”.

Wrapping up the RFPB fundraising efforts this year Sophie and 17 other RFPB runners will be heading international to run the New York Marathon in November. Sophie told us she was excited to take RFPB international:

“This will be my very first marathon and my first time to New York. I decided that the perfect way for me to finish off our 10th birthday celebrations would be to run the world’s best full marathon! I can’t wait!!”

Well done to Sophie Smith, the RFPB team, and all the runners who have been a part of their cause along the way.

If you want to get involved with the Running For Premature Babies, check out their Facebook page, and their website.