UC top tertiary team for mum’s run

Neil Macdonald

30 May 2014: The University of Canberra’s Team UCAN has again been named the largest tertiary team to take part in the Canberra Mother’s Day Classic.

It is the fifth year in a row the team has claimed the prize, with 28 members taking part in the 5km walk or run or 10km run around Commonwealth Park on 11 May, to raise funds for breast cancer research.

Some of Team UCAN at the Mother's Day Classic. Photo supplied by Taip Ramadani

Team UCAN was made up of staff, students and alumni from the University and the wider community. This year 20 staff, students and their families from the University’s Ngunnawal Centre participated in the event, as part of Team UCAN.

Haley McQuire, 23, who completed the 5km walk, said she took part “to help raise money for charity and to be involved in the local Canberra community.”

Kaytlin Kelly, 18, ran the 10km for her mother, who lives interstate.

“My mum is in Perth, I miss her and so I ran the 10km for her. It was good to see other students turn up as well,” she said.

“I stopped running, then I looked down and I saw Team UCAN on my shirt, and I said ‘I can’ and I started to run again.”

David Bruton-Duroux also completed the 10km run.

“The run was nice and felt peaceful. It was good to see people with smiles on their faces, especially when they ran past me,” the 18-year-old joked.

Students were encouraged to enter the Mother’s Day Classic by Ngunnawal Centre director Craig Dukes, with the centre also selecting four students to compete in the Indigenous Marathon Project (IMP) Deadly Fun Run in Uluru next month.