What makes a man sell his family home, his business and run 3000km to raise money for a medical condition that doesn’t directly affect him?
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That’s the question a young Wollondilly School student asked Andrew Biszczak on Monday when he addressed a morning assembly.
“I knew if I was running 3000km from Adelaide to Brisbane, people wouldn’t believe it,” he said.
“They’d say ‘this guy is crazy,’ and everyone would talk about it.”
Besides, being 30kg overweight, he wanted to shed a little.
Just over two years ago the Victor Harbor man became aware of the rare skin condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa. The incurable disease sees children and adults break out in blisters, even with the slightest touch.
Sufferers lack a protein or ‘glue’ that holds their skin’s epidermis and dermis together. It makes for extremely fragile skin and young people afflicted with the disease are frequently referred to as ‘butterfly children.’
It affected a close friend of his wife, Sonia, who died two years ago. Before Kate Turner’s death, aged 26, the Biszczak family had already become involved in fundraising.
“It is a visually confronting disease,” Mr Biszczak said.
“People can be covered from head to toe in blisters and it also affects them internally. There is no known cure.”
An estimated 1000 people in Australia suffer the disease.
Mr Biszczak was so moved by the sight of children enduring the condition that he decided to do more. His family sold their house, real estate business and many of their belongings to support a mammoth fundraising effort.
On April 23, after two years of training, he set off on the ‘Million Dollar Run’, supported by Sonia, driving a donated caravan behind. Daughter Tiffany, nine, is also along for the ride and is being home-schooled by her mother. Their Labrador, Jessie, completes the troupe.
So far they have raised $75,000.
“It’s a long way short of our target but we haven’t had a big donor yet. Nearly all of that has come from individuals,” Mr Biszczak said.
Along the way he’s been addressing community groups and schools in an effort to raise awareness and funds to help find a cure.
His message resonated with Wollondilly Primary School students, who plied him with questions.
He showed a video, partly about young ‘Johnny,’ the Million Dollar Run’s ambassador. He rises every day at 5am to have a two-hour bath to cleanse his skin before he can go to school. Even at school he must be careful; he can’t play sport because a small bump can set off blisters.
“There will be a lot of people you meet in your life who are not like you,” Mr Biszczak told the students.
“Johnny is an incredible boy and his condition doesn’t change the person inside. It doesn’t matter what you look like physically.
“Butterfly children are the most incredible people I’ve met.”
But he stressed that people didn’t have to sell everything and run 3000km to make a positive change. He urged the students to talk to their parents and spread the word about the cause.
Wollondilly students also passed the tin around and raised a handy sum.
“Do you get to sleep?” one girl asked.
Well, yes he does, in the caravan, after running 40 to 50km every day.
Mr Biszczak also stopped in at Marulan Public School on Tuesday.
He aims to arrive in Brisbane in August.
All funds raised during the Million Dollar Run will go directly to DEBRA Australia, a not-for-profit organisation that supports people living with EB and works towards funding developments of treatments and a cure.
DEBRA Australia works mostly on a volunteer basis and while research is being carried out for a cure, the researchers often spend much of their time trying to raise funds.
Donations can be made at www.themilliondollarrun.com.au or via the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/themilliondollarrun/?pnref=lhc