Kerre Woodham: Rallying to a great cause

Lucia Tigri (R), Kerre Woodham and Gaz Brown at the event. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The Otane fire chief said he'd never seen a crash like it.

Three cars and a truck and trailer piled up in Hawke's Bay over Christmas. It was spectacular all right and my mate was smack bang in the middle of it.

I can remember seeing the photo of the crash scene in the New Zealand Herald and thinking "that's Christmas ruined for a lot of people". And then the phone rang. Like so many people around the country, I got the phone call everyone dreads.

My mate, Gaz, who's trained me to run four marathons and co-written a couple of books on running with me, was in a critical condition, his fiancee and mum were in a serious condition and his sister was in hospital too.

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time had dealt the Brown family a body blow. Gaz and Lucia were to be married yesterday but when a couple of his best men and I flew down to see them, it became pretty bloody obvious the wedding would have to be postponed.

You feel so helpless when you see the people you love all battered and broken, so when Steve suggested organising a fun run to show our support for our mates, it was a huge relief.

We had something to get stuck into and a tangible way to help while our friends got on with the business of healing.

A planning group was organised, emails were sent out and the event got bigger and bigger.

We'd hold it on the day the wedding was to be held; people would dress up in bride and groom costumes; we'd hold an auction; sell sausages and drinks - maybe even an after-run concert. It was getting bigger than Rhythm and Vines.

And then Sarah said: "Don't you need a permit from the council if you're going to hold it at Western Park?" The organising committee looked at one another blankly. "I'll ring them," I said. So I did and got put on to the lovely Haylee who told me it would take four weeks for an application to hold an event to be processed. "But we don't have four weeks. It has to be next Saturday," I protested and explained the story to her.

"OK," said Haylee. "Send me in your traffic management plan, your hazard identification sheet, your public liability insurance forms and I'll move heaven and earth to make this happen." The stunned silence at the other end of the line spoke volumes. "Ummm - you DO have all the paperwork in place, don't you?" Haylee asked tentatively.

My answer of no was one of anguish and that's when Haylee stepped up to the plate. "Right" she said decisively. "All is not lost. I'll see what I can do." And within half an hour she'd phoned me back to say that the guys from Total Sport, who run all sorts of events around the country, were in effect willing to run the event for us.

They had all the paperwork required for these sorts of things.

The next day, we met and Aaron, Nicola and Haylee spent their entire weekend working like Trojans to ensure our Bride and Groom Fun Run could take place. All sorts of people donated amazing prizes to help attract runners.

In fact, Gaz and Lucia have been so overwhelmed by people's kindness that they want to share the love with the people who helped save their lives and have donated some of the big ticket items to be auctioned on Trade Me with the proceeds to go to the air rescue helicopter and St John Ambulance.

About 200 people turned up yesterday morning and great fun was had by all.

Tony Astle, who was supposed to be hosting the wedding reception, turned up and played vicar, handing out wedding certificates of achievement to all runners who made it around the course and, best of all, Gaz and Lucia were well enough to be there.

On behalf of the organising committee, a huge thank you to all those who turned up to support the event, to all the sponsors - but most of all to Aaron and Nicola Carter from Total Sport and Haylee from the Auckland Council. It's great to know that the spirit of can-do and community isn't just to be found in small towns - we can find it in the city, too.