Running for the children, for a good cause

Where did the idea come from to run around the Lake Balaton and gather supporters in this way?

We often come together out of the clinic, and almost everyone from the team runs regularly. When it  turned out accidentally, one of us just idealized, what if we had some running experience together. “… let’s go for that challenge called Ultrabalaton!” Twelve people  gathered together  one day and we could  begin with the preparation. Running for the children, for a good cause was so evident, therefore we started to organise everything in that way.

What where your experiences during the running?

The organisation of the event was fantastic. There were 10.000 participants and there was no problem at all. Everyone was patient, everyone encouraged the others and there was a unique atmosphere. The hardest thing of the preparation was to organise the transfer between the sections. Fortunately we had a member who already had had some experience with that, so everything went on smoothly . The weather went wrong, it was windy and rainy at night, and it complicated the running a little bit. However, finally our running time was 2 hours better (20:05) than that we had planned.

Would you tell me  a bit about the team?

There were 12 doctors from the Department of Paediatrics, 4 paediatricians and 8 residents. As it was told previously, most of us have already had some experience with running, but there were some who picked up  running just for that cause. Most of the time we trained  individually, but when it was possible, we did it together as well. We tried to post these events on our Facebook site, too.

How successful was your initiative?

We are really thankful to every companies and individuals who have helped. The point is that every team member did as much as they could to spread the information and to take part in the organisation process, too. Furthermore, everyone who has been asked to help was so kind and did everything  possible.  We also received a lot of support from our colleagues during the event. It was great to know that there was the whole clinic behind us.  In addition, the English-German Student Council of the University of Pecs Medical School offered to buy us a patient warming device to our Intensive Care Unit. All in all we are thankful to everyone that we could reach our goals.

You collected money for a vein scanner. Why is this special equipment  so important for the Paediatrics Clinic?

In most of the cases accessing little children’s vein to collect some blood or to insert a cannula is not difficult. However, in individual cases (for example puffy hands or dehydration) these veins can be hard to find. This device can help us to identify the hidden veins and decreases the stress and fear of the child and the doctor, too.

What are your future plans? Are you planning further actions?

At first we would like to thank to all  companies and individuals for their support and kind assistance. For that reason we are planning an official event where the devices are going to be demonstrated. We would like to set up a supporter poster somewhere at the clinic too, which reminds everyone of  this collaboration and encourage similar projects. And  last but not least we keep on running and we are preparing for  the next challenge.