Written by Jesse Spraggon & Media by Taylor Neal.
On Saturday, August 31st, a large group came together to support Mary Ashley Barber by running a benefit 5k, with the proceeds going towards her medical expenses. Mary Ashley has already undergone brain surgery earlier this year, and will receive a kidney transplant during the fall of 2013. Although the run was supposed to take place at 7pm, a storm ended up canceling the event shortly before. After hearing that the event had been cancelled, many of the runners decided to show their support for Mary Ashley by running the 5k regardless of the inclement weather. She responded to this show of support and the run in general in a post on Facebook, “Thank you to everyone that came out to my glow run! I just really wanted to let you guys know that I felt so loved and blessed! Thanks for supporting my family and me! We can’t express how much you did for us! It was raining so we waited to see if it would stop raining but it didn’t so we had to cancel the run, though after we said it was cancelled people just started to run and that made my heart so full of joy and really humbled me to see all of you guys start running on your own for me! I just felt so blessed! For the ones who couldn’t be there but donated money I really want to say that you helped us out so much!!! I will never forget that night because of all of you guys and I couldn’t have done all of this without you guys so thank you so much for all of your prayers! I’m encouraged everyday because of all of you cheering me on! Thank you to everyone that made it possible to do this event! Thanks again for everything you have done for me!” The event’s Facebook page stated that $11,500 dollars were raised from the event which will be www.helphopelive.org and simply follow the instruction on the site.
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