Real Life Stories
ukMorwenna Cross
A motor-racing enthusiast, Morwenna opted to join the fight against malaria after seeing David Brabham’s Highcroft Racing car decorated with the Malaria No More logo at the Le Mans race in 2010. She was shocked to hear over the tannoy announcements at the event that malaria – a preventable and treatable disease – claims the life of a child every minute.
She had wanted to run in the London Marathon ever since she watched a friend complete the world famous race in 2007, but only succeeded in securing a place in her third year of applying. By this time, she had determined to fundraise for Malaria No More UK’s work to reach near zero deaths from malaria by 2015.
Six years ago Morwenna couldn’t run for more than 15 seconds at a time, but gradually worked her way towards running 10k and eventually half marathons. Although running a full marathon was a daunting prospect, she was confident that she’d go the distance having followed a strict training programme that even involved setting up her own training blog online. As she came round the corner by Buckingham Palace and saw the finishing line ahead on the day of the Marathon, her training paid off as she found herself able to sprint the final few hundred yards!
For Morwenna, the most rewarding aspect of running for Malaria No More UK was being able to set a personal challenge while benefiting others. She is even considering running the Liverpool Marathon this October..!
More real life stories
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Musa Sanyang
I came from a very poor background from a village in the Gambia. My parents were subsistence farmers, my father planted ground nut during the raining season and my mum, who died about 9 years ago after a complication with malaria, used to work on the rice field during the same period; my family had no other source of income.
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Abimbola Junaid
Abimbola Junaid is global campaigner on educational and health issues, including malaria.
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Mei from Dance2Learn.org
The decision to join the global fight against malaria was made when I heard the Senegalese musician, Youssou N’Dour, talking on the radio about how he was helping to end suffering and death caused by the disease.
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Geoffrey Baines
I just happened to be checking out Twitter one day at the time when a tweet from the author, Seth Godin, appeared encouraging people to buy a couple of copies of the book End Malaria – one to read and one to give away.
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Helvi Kashuku, Field Worker
Helvi is an experienced 34 year old field worker with the Malaria No More UK supported malaria prevention programme in northern Namibia. She is motivated by her own personal experience of malaria, having seen her 12 year old brother suffer from the disease and spend time in hospital
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Adwoa Pomea
Village farmer Adwoa works hard to harvest maize, cassava and plantain on her land in Ghana, West Africa.
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Shoshana Court
In January, when I came to Sekondi/Takoradi on the West Coast of Ghana, I was so excited!
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Doreen Tetteh
New Mum Doreen and her husband live with their six month old baby boy, John, in Ghana, a country where 100% of the population are at risk from malaria.
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Joanna Awuku Gyan
Community Nurse Joanna works on the frontline fighting malaria in Ghana, where malaria claims more lives of young children than any other single disease.
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Bismark Amankwaah, Physician's Assistant
Bismark is on the front line of the malaria fight in his role as a Physician’s Assistant at Ejura hospital. “Around 70% of the 200 patients we see every day are suspected to have malaria. There are only two hospitals in this district and people come far to get here. Sometimes they come too late with severe malaria and it can be fatal.
