Lily's Legs 2020 VIRTUAL March Marathon

2020 was the first year of Lily’s Legs Virtual March Marathon, and we were hoping to raise enough money to get Lily to London to attend a neuroplasticity conference. 

We had a go at setting up a website (poorly), gofundme page and facebook group to get the word out. Rather than a medal or certificate, Joff had the brilliant idea of giving everyone who completed the marathon a beanie, hand made by Lily, expecting that 10 or 20 of his running friends might join in. 

By the end of the process Lily had very tired hands…… somewhat surprisingly, we ended up with 185 participants from 9 countries. Lily had to make a few more beanies that we initially thought.

In 2020 we had people running, walking, riding bikes, riding skateboards, swimming, rowing and hand cycling. Lily finished her marathon using an arm crank. 

By the end of the marathon, and including some awesome and very generous additional donations, we raised over $27,000. 

Unfortunately COVID-19 impacted on the conference as well as international travel in 2020 and 2021, and given the ongoing risks for Lily we explored alternative options to put the fundraising to good use.

Following lengthy discussions with Lily’s physiotherapists, and after getting the ‘green light’ from contributors to the fundraising, we ordered an RT60 six channel stimulator FES leg cycle (https://www.rehabtechnology.com.au/.../restorative.../).

The FES leg cycle cost just under $38,000, and Lily scraped together the balance of the costs from the small compensation she received from her accident to get the piece of kit. 

The benefits of this piece of equipment to Lily include improving muscle tone in her legs and circulation, as well as the psychological benefits of see her legs generating power (under electrical stimulation) turning the pedals. 

Since its arrival, Lily has been using the FES machine almost daily – she loves it!

Thank you once again for everyone’s support!