Bendigo Health are set to benefit to the tune of more than $100,000 from last weekend’s fun run, with a local grandmother the highest single contributor to the tally.
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It was the second consecutive year Hazel Sheehan took out the honour of being the highest individual fundraiser; last year she collected $760.
But she outdid herself in 2017, raising almost $1100.
“I'm really hoping I'll cross the line upright and, with your help, give a generous amount to this worthwhile cause,” she said on her fundraising page.
Read more: Go inside the 2017 fun run
Mrs Sheehan was happy to collect between $500 to $600. But her colleagues and her husband’s workmates came to the party, lifting her final figure into four digits.
She was cheered on from the sidelines last weekend by her husband, daughter and grandchildren. The young ones sported t-shirts emblazoned with messages of support.
“Nanny H is amazing – she ran the 15 kilometres,” her grandson’s shirt read.
It was the first time Mrs Sheehan ran the 15-kilometre event and she did it five minutes faster than she expected, something she attributes to this year’s revamped course.
Fortunately, the Bendigo grandmother was yet to need the services of Bendigo Health, but she has seen their work firsthand when her children were hospitalised.
Staff nursed her son back to health when he suffered a collapsed lung, while her daughter gave birth to her children at the hospital.
“It's not somewhere you plan to go, but when you've got to go there, you know you’re in safe hands,” she said.
While her sponsors helped out Bendigo Health, they also made her commit to the race, Mrs Sheehan said.
“It gives me that incentive that I can't wake up in the morning and decide not to run, it gets me out.”
Bendigo Bank and the Bendigo Health Foundation are yet to announced the final fundraising figure, but a hospital spokesperson said it will top $100,000.