Photo credit: Greta Joy (VFMP 2018)
Contributed by: Nathan Toh (VFMP 2018)
The UBC VFMP Class of 2018 organized the 12th annual Run for Rural Medicine on March 19th, 2016 at Jericho Beach Park. This annual event is a 5k and 10k charity race that supports rural medicine initiatives while bringing public awareness to the need for rural health services and the shortage of physicians in rural BC. This year the race raised money for Hope Air, a very deserving national charity that provides flights from rural communities to larger medical centres for patients who cannot afford the travel expenses.
The race day was a gorgeous morning. 200 participants wound their way through Jericho Park and along the beach path to Locarno beach and Spanish banks. We also had a number of brightly dressed, enthusiastic, and highly vocal volunteers along the race route to cheer our runners along! We were also very fortunate to be joined by Anna du Bois, the Development Manager for Hope Air, and have her share a few words about the charity. There were many prizes available for the winners of both the 5k and 10k, as well as a large number of draw prizes for our participants and our volunteers. Prizes included yoga passes, various gift cards, gym passes, sporting event tickets, and others. Many people also left with a free trial gym pass, smoothie coupons, pedometers from Doctors of B.C., and a Run for Rural Medicine T-shirt. After running, participants were able to enjoy an array of delicious food items including cinnamon buns, donuts, muffins, bananas, coffee, bagels, and water.
We are very excited to announce that this year the event was extremely successful and we were able to raise approximately $7000! Finally, we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who participated, donated, or volunteered, to our many wonderful sponsor businesses, and to Hope Air!
The winners of this year’s race are:
Top 5k Males
- Masamichi Shibata
- Sanjeeva Rajapakse
Top 5k Females
- Rachel Liu
- Alexandra Wilson
Top 10k Males
- Ben Brzezynski
- Eric Zhao
Top 10k Females
- Chloe Peters
- Keely Hammond
We look forward to seeing everybody next year! Thanks again to everyone who came out to support this great event!