Make Murph Better

Our mate Murph was horribly struck with diabetes 18 months ago. In an amazing display of strength in adversity, he has grabbed the bull by the horns and shown that you can achieve anything you put your mind to.

But we want to see him get even better, so we are raising funds to help him buy an insualin pump, which costs around $8,000.

Here's the full story:

After completing his first marathon in October 2015, Murph lost 8kg in a month which for anybody who trying to get lean fast would be great news but for him this was quite alarming!
He had trained for a year to run the marathon so he figured  his body was trying to tell him he was tired cos when he returned to gym a few days after the marathon he was using the Lat Pull Down machine, a machine he'd used hundreds of times, but this time was different, he was tired and felt incredibly
weak and his usual 'warm up set' became hard. He brushed it off and was still in denial at this stage.

A couple of weeks later he had entered to run in the City2Sea 15km run. He was 3km into it whern his run turned into a jog then finally a walk. He was dazed but too stubborn to call for help so he jog/walked the rest of the way to the finish.
On the way home from that race he decided he needed to find answers so he headed to his local GP where his 1st Blood Glucose Level (BGL) reading was too high to read so they sent him straight to the emergency ward at the Angliss Hospital to undergo treatment for his new auto-immune disease, Type 1 Diabetes. His 1st reading was 49.7mmol/L
A normal BGL reading should be between 5-7mmol/L.

In the space of 4 weeks he'd developed 10 out of the 12 key symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes including:
- Excessive thirst
- Passing more urine
- Feeling tired and lethargic
- Always feeling hungry
- Blurred vision
- Sugar cravings
- Unexplained weight loss
- Mood swings
- Headaches
- Leg cramps

As a person who was scared of needles and hospitals the term 'Áuto-Immune Disease' was totally forgein.
Type 1 Diabetes occurs when the pancreas can no longer produce insulin. He now requires 4 insulin injections a day, 1 which acts in the background and lasts 24 hours and 1 with each main meal.
He has to monitor his BGLs several times during the day with a finger prick test.

So while many would use this as a reason to back things off, Murph did the opposite. Here are some of his results from before his diagnosis:

2015:
Melbourne Marathon 266th 3:04:43
Sandy Point Half Marathon 23rd 1:25:12
Run Melbourne Half Marathon 458th 1:36:28
Puffing Billy 13.5km 149th 55:29

and here are some from after:;

2016:
Melbourne Marathon 749th 3:26:07
Roller Coaster Half Marathon 30th 2:11:33
Great Ocean Road Marathon 52nd 3:35:33
Sri Chinmoy Half Marathon 18th 1:24:02
Surf Coast Trail Marathon 36th 3:52:03
Puffing Billy 13.5km 212th 56:50
Run Melbourne Half Marathon 123rd 1:28:06
Run For The Kids 15km 250th 1:06:27
Two Bays 28km 178th 2:39:29
Afterglow Half Marathon 3rd 1:30:24

2017
Buffalo Stampede Skymarathon 13th 5:02:45
Two Bays 56km 40th 5:25:33
Sharpy's Beer Run Half Marathon 4th 1:45:24
Roller Coaster Run 43km 9th 4:24:21
Puffing Billy 13.5km 46th 51:47

How awesome is that.

So whats the point of all this?

We want to help Murph buy an insulin pump.

The pump is used to mimic a pancreas by automatically delivering precise doses of insulin 24 hours a day. Elimiating the need for Murph to test and inject insulin himself.

Insulin is held in a reservoir in the pump, from there it's delivered through a cannula under your skin which can be disconnected at anytime for sport/showers.

The reservoir can hold up to 300 units of insulin and can be changed every 2-3 days.

The problem is, that these pumps cost up to $8k, so we are looking for your support to make a massive difference to Murph's quality of life.