After my first experience raising small amount of funds for the National Cancer Society of Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon 2019 – Run for a Reason, I knew I would run again to raise funds for charity, be it for the same or other cause. I learned that raising funds for charity is not easy, at least for me. It’s like having thick skin to get people to understand the cause and charity. You get people judging, ignoring and block you, and of course, you get friends and strangers who support the cause, unexpected ones who donate and one or two who would go extra mile to be your voice. The last two of course, very little.

Despite those challenges, I do not feel I should stop running for a cause and fortunately, when I was looking at registering for the Malaysia Women Marathon 2020, I saw a new category – Fund Raising for Malaysia Rare Disease Society. I quickly contacted the organiser to register as the link to register for that category was not ready yet. I was sold for two reasons: Firstly, running for a cause adds more meaning to my runs and secondly, it was for Lily, an 18 year old angel who suffered a rare disease – AADC since birth till the day she died on the 4th July 2019. She was the eldest child of my schoolmate Melati Khalid and Shariman Kamarulzaman.

Although Lily has left us, I hope to spread awareness about rare diseases and hope to bring good impact to a child or two.