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Marathon runner Stephen Hunt with twins Rafi and Max |
Dad pounds streets in mission to save nursery
5am marathon training session… then home to look after twins
RUNNING the London Marathon holds no fears for house husband Stephen Hunt, who cares for energetic twins, including one with Down’s syndrome.
But former IT worker Stephen, 38, will not be running the gruelling 26 miles next month just for fun.
He is on a mission to save an Islington nursery set up specifically for children with Down’s syndrome which is threatened with closure due to a shortage of funds.
Downright Excellent under-fives group – one of the few of its kind in London – meets each Friday morning for three hours at St George’s Church Hall, in Crayford Road, Holloway.
It has become a lifesaver for parents such as Stephen, whose wife works full time, as they struggle to cope. At his home in Crouch End, just over the Islington border, Stephen cares for two-year-old twins Rafi and Max, who has Down’s syndrome.
“They are pretty boisterous kids,” he said. “But that’s what you expect with young twins.”
He tends to do his marathon training at 5am when he runs as far as Highbury Corner and back. He aims to run about 50 miles a week.
“My own sacrifice – and it’s a big one – is giving up beer for the race,” he said.
Money raised for Downright Excellent group will help it provide speech and language therapy for children.
He said: “Parents pay £10 a week and we’re hoping for charitable funding status and to become self-funding.
“As well as Islington, we get families from Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Kent, Lewisham, Barnet and Westminster. There’s nowhere else like it.”
The group receives no council funding and exists mainly on small grants from the Peabody Trust and Sure Start.
Stephen added: “I can’t emphasies enough the importance of the group for parents like me and the benefit to the children.
“For parents, it’s an opportunity to meet and discuss problems. For children, it helps them prepare for primary school, where they will be mixing with other children.”
Every day in the UK, one or two babies are born with Down’s syndrome, which means that one baby in 1,000 has the condition.
To sponsor Stephen, email stephenjhunt@gmail.com.
For information about the toddler group go to www.downrightexcllent.com
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