County Durham and Darlington fire fighters to run marathon in inflatable cow suits
Firefighters will run the Leeds Marathon in comedy cow suits to raise money and awareness for motor neurone disease (MND).
The firefighters, from County Durham and Darlington, will be taking on the marathon in the inflatable costumes, alongside their colleagues from neighbouring brigades, to support Richard Messenger, a local dairy farmer diagnosed with MND.
The team, led by James Bulman from the County Durham and Darlington Fire & Rescue Service (who is Mr Messenger's brother-in-law), initially aimed to raise £2,620 - but have already surpassed this target.
Mr Messenger and his family have themselves been fundraising since his diagnosis in 2024, raising over £12,000 through their 'Milk for Messy' campaign.
Mr Bulman said: "A charity only becomes poignant to you when you, family, or a friend is affected.
"The fire service has proved it's a family by the response and help they have provided, especially Durham and Darlington, Cleveland, and other neighbouring services/brigades - a huge thank you.
"Hopefully a herd of inflatable cows doing a marathon will attract people's attention and encourage them to ask why? - MND, and hopefully in the near future we will have a cure for this debilitating illness.
"Our motto for the day will be: the bigger the herd, we will be heard!"
Speaking about the challenge, regional fundraiser for the MND Association, Dominic McDonough, said: "This is a challenge like no other and seeing a team of inflatable cows cross the finish line will be an incredible memory and raise so much awareness.
READ MORE:
Trust called to 'comply' over Darlington nurse trans row
New cricket charity launched in honour of Peterlee's Roy Simpson
Great North Air Ambulance called out 26 times over Easter
"We are so grateful to the entire team for taking on this huge run to support us.
"The sore legs will be worth it and we really appreciate all of their hard work!
"It means the world to us."
For more information about the challenge or to donate to the fundraising page please visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/james-bulman-1730632535806
For more information about MND and the MND Association please visit www.mndassociation.org
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
OpenAI CMO to Take Leave Following Breast Cancer Diagnosis
OpenAI Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Kate Rouch will take a three-month medical leave after announcing today that she has been undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer since shortly after joining OpenAI in December. In a LinkedIn post, Rouch said her prognosis is excellent and that she plans to fully focus on healing. She added that Meta's former CMO, Gary Briggs, will serve as interim head of marketing during her leave. "Earlier this year-just weeks into my dream job-I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. We moved to SF on days' notice for treatment, arriving Super Bowl Sunday," Rouch wrote. "For the past five months, I've been undergoing chemo at UCSF while leading our marketing team. It's been the hardest season of life-for me, my husband, and our two young kids." OpenAI Hires Instacart CEO Fidji Simo as Head of Applications Rouch joined OpenAI in December after serving as Coinbase's CMO. Prior to that she spent over a decade at Meta, rising to vice president and global head of brand and product marketing, where she led marketing for the company's core platforms-including Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook-and worked alongside Briggs. "Silicon Valley can be sharp-edged-fast, competitive, transactional. But getting sick revealed something deeper," Rouch wrote. "We're not cogs in the same machine-we're waves from the same sea." ADWEEK has reached out to OpenAI for comment.
Hamilton Spectator
5 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Quartet on the land found safe and sound
Rankin Inlet Search and Rescue (SAR) successfully retrieved four people from out on the land this past week. Search co-ordinator Lorna Grace Tatty of Rankin Inlet said she received a message from Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt at 9:16 p.m. on May 26, telling her that he had received a call from Apple about an S.O.S. call made from a cell phone. Tatty said Wyatt gave her the co-ordinates from where the message originated and informed her that it was a family of four involved: Pauline Semik; son Robert Semik; daughter Ashley Semik; and Honore Pissuk, Ashley's boyfriend. Pauline Semik was injured with what turned out to be a broken foot. Tatty said an incident number was assigned and she took over from there. 'I called our Emergency Management Operations in Iqaluit to give them all the information and tell them what was going on,' said Tatty. 'Then I sent out our first responders for SAR – that's my common-law, Peter Kadlak, and Darcy Kanayok. 'They left Rankin at 10:30 p.m. and only made it about 12 km out when Peter's sled got stuck in the slush. So, I messaged Solomon Ford to ask if he could help to pull out Peter's sled. 'Solomon (Ford) has a wide-track snowmobile and he was able to pull them out. Then I told the guys to just come back to Rankin and I'll get Emergency Management Operations to send over a helicopter. 'The helicopter couldn't leave until the next morning. It arrived in Rankin at 11:21 a.m. on Tuesday morning. It left to retrieve the four stranded people at 11:46 a.m. and arrived back with the stranded people at 12:31 p.m.' Tatty said she got one medic on board with the pilot to rescue the four people at Parallel Lake. She said as of Tuesday evening, the snowmobile and sleds were still stuck out on the lake. 'There was a SAR cabin close to where they were, so they were well-sheltered until they left there. 'They stayed so calm through everything. They were really thankful when they arrived in Rankin. I never slept for two days when all this was happening. 'They never told anyone they were going that far. When people go out, they should always let someone know where they're heading too. They should also always take extra rope and a dry bag for extra clothing, boots, a first aid kit and stuff like that.' Tatty said she was very happy with the way things played out. She said you can't ask for anything better than everyone being found safe and sound. 'Pauline (Semik) messaged me on Messenger to say thank you very much, so all's well that ends well. 'I'll be doing responder training in July, maybe, for eight people from Rankin. And, maybe, in September, we'll be having drone pilot training for the Kivalliq region. 'Peter Kadlak and I are certified drone pilots for Casara Search and Rescue and I'm also a certified navigator for Casara Search and Rescue for the Rankin region.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
From the Pocket: Neale Daniher's no-nonsense nature keeps Big Freeze from slipping into cliche
It starts with a sore toe, difficulty tying a shoelace, a tingle in a finger. Author Joe Hammond found himself 'like a passenger in the aisle of a plane going through gentle turbulence'. For Ross Lyon's mum, Louise, it started with a twitch in her calf muscle. Within a few months, she couldn't move her arms or legs. Within a year, it was in her throat, and she was unable to breathe. For Don Pyke's father, Frank, it started with difficulty swallowing. He was a professor and a sports scientist and a member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. In the early 1970s, he played a key role in rehabilitating Dennis Lillee's back. Motor neurone disease (MND) killed him in 16 weeks. Advertisement For Neale Daniher, it started in his hands. He found it hard to peg his shirts on the clothesline. He fumbled with his car keys. A friend noticed his handshake had weakened. Daniher calls it 'the beast' but doctors, researchers, patients and carers around the world call it 'the bastard'. Every day in Australia, two people are diagnosed and two people die. Prof Brad Turner of the Florey Institute says it's 'the most incapacitating disease of our species'. The Danihers are farming people from the baking red dirt of the Riverina. Neale and his 10 brothers and sisters quickly learned there was no room for sentimentality and self-pity. On the farm, you planned for the worst. You never complained. You worked hard. You got on with it. You learned that so much in this world is beyond your control. Neale was the only Daniher sent away to boarding school. He didn't want to be a farmer. He was too curious, too introspective, too restless for that life. He studied theology for a year at the University of Melbourne. He was coached by Ray Carroll at Assumption College and Kevin Sheedy at Essendon, and his own coaching tenure melded their ferocity and cunning. Many of his former players were amazed at the wise-cracking man who emerged later in life. Having been kept at arms-length during their playing careers, so many of them have built enduring, meaningful relationships with the man they once feared, and now adore. Advertisement It's more than a dozen years since Daniher was diagnosed with MND. It's a decade since the inaugural Big Freeze match. So much has changed in that time. The queen's birthday is now the king's birthday. Both Melbourne and Collingwood have cycled between ineptitude and success. Daniher, initially given 27 months at best, has walked two daughters down the aisle, welcomed grandchildren, and been named Australian of the Year. He now uses gaze interaction technology to communicate, utilising his voice from old press conferences. After being woefully underfunded for so long, there's better understanding of MND, there's groundbreaking research, and there's cautious optimism that this thing can eventually be beaten. Initiatives such as the Big Freeze could easily drown in cliche. It could get drawn into tired analogies of sport and death. Football could easily strain to mean more than it does. That was never going to happen with Daniher. He hates it when people call him a hero. He doesn't want pity. He wants a cure. 'When you're dying,' Daniher wrote in his book, 'everyone thinks you're a great bloke. When I was footballer, they had me in the 'natural born leader' box and then the 'unfulfilled talent' box. As a coach they put me in the 'intense bastard' box and now that I have a terminal illness I'm in the 'such an inspiration' box.' Reading that, I think of something The Sopranos creator, David Chase, said: 'Whatever the opposite of bullshit is, that's what I think Jim Gandolfini was searching for.' In every utterance, every joke, every deflection, every dollar raised, that's Daniher – the complete absence of bullshit. Advertisement MND takes nearly everything. It takes your ability to walk, to talk, to hug, to eat, to cry and, eventually, to breathe. I could reel off words like 'inspiration' and 'spirit' and 'courage' and 'grace', but none of them could do justice to what Daniher and the sufferers of MND endure. I think again of that quote – 'the most incapacitating disease of our species'. If that's the case, few could look at Daniher and not see the very best of the species. But he'd say that was bullshit.
