The Run Carla Run Project: Reloaded

And now the time has come my friends to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax and….CARLA IS RUNNING A MARATHON IN DUBLIN!? Joy of joys! Are you ready for more hilarious blog posts and endless facebook notifications from the RunCarlaRun Project? I bet you are. Ahhhhhhhh!

But why, I’m sure you’re all wondering (all 5 of you reading this) am I running again? Why, when I so vehemently proclaimed that I would never go running again, am I now lacing back up my shoes?

Well, it’s all for my wonderful, beautiful, smart, funny, lovely niece Nicole. Nicole has recently been suffering from complications due to hydrocephalus, or, in layman’s terms, “water on the brain”. She has had this condition since infancy as the result of being born extremely premature. For the first 18 years of her life, she has lived a relatively normal life with few medical interruptions. However, these past few months her hydrocephalus, which has been manageable up to this point, has now become very agitated and is causing her serious problems, such as severe headaches and seizures. This has necessitated surgery after surgery in hopes to correct the symptoms. No long term solution has been achieved thus far by her various surgeons and medical specialists. And while we’re all praying for her, I have decided to show my support by running another marathon and blogging about hydrocephalus. 

Just like I blogged about Multiple Sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases while I prepared to run the Rome Marathon last spring, for this marathon adventure I will blog about hydrocephalus and other conditions premature babies can suffer from. Nicole is a real survivor and has overcome a plethora of medical ailments with courage, grace, dignity and a smile. She is one of the happiest and most generous people I know. Her positive spirit and gentle soul cultivate joy everywhere she goes. It is my honor to write about her here in this blog. I am very lucky to be her aunt and I hope these words and all the blog posts that follow will lift her spirits and give her the love and support she needs to keep soldiering on during her time in and out of the hospital.

What else is making a return to this blog? Well more running stories, obviously, and more cartoons, obviously, and…another charity donation cause! I have set-up a site to make donations to the Hydrocephalus Association via the FirstGiving donations site. Remember my last fundraising efforts with JustGiving? Well, this is its US counterpart. 100% of all donations will go the HA, plus, you get a thank you card from me! What more could you ask for? My goal is $2000 US dollars this time around. Go HERE to donate now!

Last but not least, Nicole has offered to contribute to my blog! She is a major part of this fundraising campaign and I can’t wait to see what she adds to the Run Carla Run Project.

So thank you to everyone who has supported me though all my RCRP days. Let's see what this Irish adventure brings....