The Australasian Tuberous Sclerosis Society

 Shireen Doyle is a mother of TSC affected Taylor. She completed the Red Cross Murray River Marathon with her colleagues to raise money for ATSS, The Red Cross and the Cord Donor program.

It was April 2003, a bunch of girls were sitting around the table at work toying with the idea of doing something worthwhile. This bunch of girls consisted of 10, all various ages, the youngest 20 the oldest 41, working on the road for the Ambulance Service of New South Wales.

We came up with the idea of kayaking the Murray River in December 2003. This consisted of kayaking 404kms down the river in teams of two over eight days commencing in Yarrawonga on Boxing Day and finishing in Swan Hill on New Years Eve. Sounds easy we thought yeh right! Not one of us had ever kayaked before and really we were not of the sporting variety but we were fit, or so we thought. So we looked into it and decided yes we could do it.

This proved to be not so easy, first we had to have $3,500 entrance fee that went to the Red Cross, a fully equipped land crew, one kayak (preferably of the racing variety), food, accommodation and vehicles, this all had to be raised by ourselves with no outside help.

Here the fun begins. We were given a kayak to use for training and the race. We were so excited, we thought it was great (more about that later). Training began in May on the Nepean River once a week, fitting in around our shifts, as all of us were on different stations this proved a logistical nightmare, rain, hail or shine. The first few weeks we couldn’t move, every effort was horrific, but we continued on and eventually it got easier and we thought we were pretty good.

Fundraising started, it was quite difficult getting donations but eventually it started to come together, training was going well and race time was getting closer. Boxing Day was just around the corner.

After finishing nightshift we set off for Victoria, in our own vehicles, borrowed trailers and no additional land crew (we had to be that). The big day arrived; our kayak was gleaming, customised shirts, tents packed, food, drink and ourselves.

We arrived tired but excited ready for the big day. Boxing Day dawned, a wake up call at 4.30am gave us a fright, but adrenaline over took us and we carried our kayak down to the start. It took 6 of us to carry it. What a surprise awaited us at the start line. Competitors were lined up in their gleaming racing kayaks which they could carry on their shoulders, land crews consisting of 50 plus people – physios, masseurs etc. to help with their teams and then their was us.

We battled on and made the cut offs every night and finally the last day was in sight. It was a mammoth effort from all involved and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our families. We raised approx $10,000 and after costs were left with $5,000. A decision was made to donate half to the Cord Donor program and the other half to Tuberous Sclerosis, as I am the mother of a thirteen year old girl (Taylor) who has TS.

Taylor was my inspiration to keep going and finish the race as she is such a strong and brave girl.

Where did we finish in the race? Well we had the last laugh. We received first place in our class as we had the oldest and largest kayak - there was no one else in that category!