A SUPERHUMAN display of endurance by Heyfield Football Club senior captain Dave Kelly has raised about $70,000, and counting, to assist with medical expenses for his ill 14 month-old daughter, Ivy.
Kelly ran 100 kilometres on Saturday, battling physical and mental anguish, over 17 hours before arriving at the Heyfield Football Ground to an emotional reception from the Kangaroos’ faithful on game day.
“You had to see it to believe it, there would have been 500 people lined up on both sides of the gate coming into the footy ground,” Kelly said.
“Gormandale Football Club and Heyfield Football Club, the teams themselves, all ran out off the track and Gormandale did a guard of honour and both football sides followed me into the ground.
“It was really surreal… half of them were crying, and they’re grown men that I thought were really tough men… it was very humbling that people would have that much emotion, it was just incredible, I can’t get over it really.”
Accompanied by Sam Morris, Leigh Northway and Michael McKinnon for the entire journey, and about 50 runners who joined in for various legs, Kelly said the run was among the hardest physical challenges he had ever faced.
About 35km in Kelly said he hit the wall, but found his second wind through a moving show of support.
“The biggest one was in Cowwarr, I had a real, real dark spot, I was pretty low and (coach Adrian) Cox’s family were down there in the middle of the track. They’d been waiting there a long time with a little bonfire and a tent and banners and it lifted me beyond what I can even express,” Kelly said.
An auction was held at the football club following the senior fixture and Kelly was “blown away” by the generosity shown.
“It’s just amazing that people would give that much money… I can’t explain it,” he said.
“I’m gobsmacked; people have just been donating for the auction (held at the footy club) and then just donations (in general). I just can’t believe it.”
The money raised through the run and auction will go towards ongoing medical expenses for Ivy, who requires extensive treatment and expensive specialised equipment to accommodate her developmental disorders.
Born with a brain defect, which doctors are still unable to categorically diagnose, Ivy suffers from severe microcephaly (small head), global developmental delay, hypotonia (low muscle tone), pendular nystagmus (flickering of eyes and difficulty focusing) and bilateral moderate hearing loss.
“It (the money) is going to be a massive, massive relief,” Kelly said.
