Wayne's Run

Manning River Times

6/24/2024

Wayne Curran and Pat Farmer running through Taree

Transcript

00:00Hey, I'm Pat Farmer. I'm known as the ultramarathon runner and I'm here in Taree today.

00:05We're on our way running through on Wayne's run. This is Wayne Curran beside me

00:10and we've developed this run to try and encourage more people to become foster carers

00:15and for the system to actually listen to the foster carers that are already in the system

00:20so that they can get greater support. Wayne?

00:23Hi guys, I'm Wayne Curran. A little bit about my story and the reason why I chose this run.

00:29I've been in the foster care system when I was young.

00:34Unfortunately, it wasn't a good memory for me.

00:38The reason I'm doing this run is through the suffering, I ended up in custody 34 times

00:48and I've done over 7 years in jail.

00:50I've rebuilt my life through running, built confidence

00:54and I chose this run today as we go to Sydney and Pat Farmer's jumped the board

01:01just to raise awareness in the foster care system and make some changes.

01:10So Wayne represents the past, he represents the system the way it was

01:16and it was quite archaic and many people in those days were put into homes

01:20and suffered terrible abuse as a result of the poor system that we had in place back then

01:26and consequently they grew up to be angry young men as Wayne says,

01:31as Wayne quite rightly described himself at the time

01:35and then that leads to crime and it leads to a whole lot of social problems that affects everybody.

01:40So we're trying to break the cycle.

01:42So Wayne is trying to get the message through about the way the system was.

01:46I'm trying to let everybody know about the way the system is at this point in time

01:50and at this point in time there is 500 children that are in hotel rooms, caravan parks

01:55being looked after by departmental people because we don't have enough people

02:00who are foster carers to care for them, to take them into their families and to give them some love.

02:05So consequently we need more foster carers

02:08and then the way it needs to be on into the future is the government,

02:12the system needs to listen to those foster carers and create a network around them

02:17to be able to support them on the journey because it's not easy to take a child on,

02:22especially as Wayne will tell you, a child from a broken home or a broken child themselves

02:27or a teenager and to try and deal with all their issues on your own.

02:32So if you've got that support network it can make a huge difference

02:36and that's what Wayne's Run's all about.

02:39So we started at Kempsey and we run through Port Macquarie.

02:43We're here at Taree today and we're on our way to Foster

02:46and then from there we run through places, Booladella, Raymond Terrance, the Central Coast

02:53and then finish off at Sydney on Thursday.

02:58Our goal is to have a meeting with the Minister

03:01and to be able to relay all the messages that we've heard along the way from foster carers.

03:06We will be speaking to audiences every single night as we have done.

03:10Sometimes there's 50 people, sometimes there's 150 people

03:14and they're made up of people curious about our running, people curious about foster care,

03:19people that want to know how to get into becoming a foster carer

03:23and people that have already been in the system and want to be able to tell us how it can be improved.

03:28So we've been speaking to all these people and our goal is to get the message through

03:33to the Minister, Kate Washington, and to be able to have that meeting at the end of all this.

03:37So we're hoping she will come out and actually run with us.

03:41So we're speaking at Foster a little bit later on this evening.

03:45Of course today is the 22nd so we're speaking at Foster at the Foster Club

03:51and then we push on from there to Booladella.

03:55We haven't got a function on in Booladella.

03:57We'll just speak with the local people there and then we'll continue on from there to Raymond Terrace.

04:02We'll be speaking at people in Raymond Terrace and then again at Toopley

04:07and then we've got a big function organised on the central coast at King Cumber

04:11and we're encouraging everybody to get out to that.

04:14That's the night before we finish and then we push on from there to the finish line at Sydney Opera House.

04:21Well Sydney Opera House in the background and we're encouraging as many people as possible

04:25please come out with us and run that last section across the Harbour Bridge

04:30and down through into Lady Macquarie's Chair with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in the background

04:35and help us show the Minister that there is a lot of support for what we're doing.

04:39Wayne's Run's all about not collecting money.

04:42We're all about collecting awareness and collecting people to become foster carers.

Category

Transcript

Recommended