By Mikayla Van Loon
Ever since Ryan Paterson spent time in the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) as a young child he has always given back through the Good Friday Appeal in some way.
This year was no different, taking on an extreme fitness challenge in Lilydale on Thursday 6 April as a way to encourage donations to the fundraiser.
Having originally thought about doing a half marathon, Ryan said lots of people do that so he wanted to try something different.
Instead, the gruelling challenge saw him do either 100 repetitions or 100 calorie counts of 10 exercises and Ryan said the idea came from wanting to push himself both physically and mentally.
“Last year I raised money by shaving my head but I thought I may as well push myself and do something that’s challenging and this is definitely rewarding and gives me an extra reason not to stop,” he said.
Diagnosed with brain cancer twice in his young life, in 2001 and then again in 2002, Ryan spent much of his early years in the care of the doctors and nurses from RCH.
“I’ve always tried to raise money for charities like this but it’s close to my heart because I spent most of childhood in the Royal Children’s,” he said
“Every time I went in after remission they were always good to me, it was always super easy, it was never scary like most hospitals are and that certainly helps.”
Knowing what he went through, Ryan said he would never wish it on any other child.
“I don’t want children to have to go through what I went through, I was young and I don’t remember much but you have to go to hospital every year until you’re 18 and it’s just a bit much.”
As a qualified personal trainer, Ryan has worked at Body Fit Training in Lilydale for just over 12 months and hoped people might find inspiration in at least some part of the workout he did.
“If people actually want to give this workout a go they can give it a go with common house type stuff,” he said.
The support he received from the gym community, Ryan said, was incredible not to mention the people who were watching in support online via a live stream.
As a football enthusiast and sporty person, Ryan said physical activity had always been ingrained in his everyday life but this challenge went beyond anything he had ever done before.
“As I’ve grown older, you just do it for yourself, you get more out of it, you set goals for yourself and once you’ve reached it you’ve got that next goal.
“It’s just a good feeling, it clears your headspace, you can kick back and relax and focus on whatever it is you’re doing.
“I’m appreciating it a lot more now than I was when I was younger because when I was younger it was all sports related but now fitness is just competition with yourself.”
Having hoped to be finished within two hours of starting, around half way through the 10 exercises the fatigue was starting to kick in but Ryan was determined to finish.
Aiming to raise at least $1000 by the end of Thursday, he had reached $1157 by 4pm.
Planning to leave the donation page open for an extra week, Ryan said every little bit helped the RCH support and care for sick kids.
The hospital treats thousands of children each year and relies on the generosity of donations every year to sustain the level of care provided on a daily basis.
“The hospital treats over 44,000 children in the wards and medical centre, 91,000 in emergency and sees over 470,000 through telehealth or as outpatients in the community each year,” the Good Friday Appeal website reads.
To help increase Ryan’s target, donations can be made via fundraise.goodfridayappeal.com.au/fundraisers/ryanpatersonBFT/gfa
