On the 27th of August a number if our team ran, walked and crawled the 10KM of the Bridge to Brisbane as members of Team Burnslife. This was our fourth time being a part of Team Burnslife, having worked with this incredible initiative of the RBWH Foundation since their humble beginnings in 2015.
To really understand what this relationship means to us, and why we’re happy to get up before the sun on a freezing winter’s day to smash out 10km, we sat down with our Director Faran Gouldson to have a chat about our work with Burnslife and the Bridge to Brisbane.
So this is the fourth year completing the Bridge to Brisbane with Team Burnslife, can you tell us about how that started and why the Bridge to Brisbane?
- Well, the Bridge to Brisbane is Burnslife’s major annual fundraiser, so in terms of raising money for the burns ward and the work that Burnslife do, this event is the biggest focus for them (and for us). When we first sat down with Charlotte (our past client and a Burnslife founding member) in 2015, they were just starting to develop as a support group and wanted to raise awareness and funds to really kick-start the projects they had in mind.
Over the years, their work and organisation has developed – from a support group to a fully-fledged burns support organisation, helping burns survivors and their carers across Queensland. Year after year, the Bridge to Brisbane continues to be their major event, so we always take the opportunity to jump on board (as Major Sponsor for the last two years) and get as many of our team members involved as possible!
Why support Burnslife?
Honestly, it was a no brainer. Our past client (client at the time in 2015) Charlotte Adderley, had herself suffered burns in a terrible accident, and had taken that experience and used it to start helping others. This alone was inspirational enough, but when she and the other founders talked about doing more; providing packs for burns patients and their carers, educational seminars and regular forums, we just wanted to know how we could support them in this.
Charlotte, the other founding members of Burnslife and members of the RBWH Foundation saw the need for this organisation, where there was no real burns support organisation in Queensland (even though the RBWH has a premier burns ward), and we saw the opportunity to support this. Every year we get to support them in different ways, and it’s always so rewarding to see how this support goes to directly help burns patients and carers.
How are you feeling about this year’s Bridge to Brisbane? We hear you pledged to do it in under 45 minutes?!
Ah yes, I’m glad that this has been brought up…
Last year my daughter Poppy beat me across the finish line and as a result I vowed, on camera, to start training in March and run the 10km in under 45 minutes, which has since come back to bite me this year! (You can see Faran’s pledge here)
I’m going to level with you, I didn’t start training in March, so the 45 minutes is looking a little difficult, but I’ve kicked my training into high-gear these last few weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to complete my pledge and smash out that 10km in under 45 minutes!
Aside from that, I’m feeling really good about it. It’s always really inspirational and quite frankly, humbling to see other members of Burnslife, including burns survivors and their carers, families and friends getting out to support this great cause.
It’s an early morning, but I know we’re looking forward to getting out there again to smash out 10km for Team Burnslife!
Update: Poppy beat Faran over the line again this year, with a time of 48 minutes while he just missed his challenge time, coming over the line in 50 mins flat. Still a pretty great result and a chance to set the goal again for next year!
A big thank-you to our Director Faran for giving us a little insight into working with Burnslife, the upcoming Bridge to Brisbane and his personal challenge for this year!
