“You don’t think about disability when you’re out running. We’re just part of the community, we’re just like everybody else.”
When the Kerr family cross the finish line in the London Marathon on Sunday, it will mark the completion of their 50th marathon. An astounding achievement for anyone, but then you learn of their story.
David and Sandra Kerr welcomed their son, Aaron, in 1997, but when he was born, it was clear he had “some medical complications”. Now 25, Aaron is non-verbal and has a series of complex needs including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and a chromosome disorder which means he uses a wheelchair.
At the age of 13, he underwent a kidney transplant, the organ donated by his father, but it was at that point that Sandra started to struggle mentally.
“At the time, I just went into automatic, and just did what I had to do,” she tells BBC Sport. “A few months afterwards, when things settled down, even though Aaron was doing very well, the enormity of it just hit me.”
Sandra tried medication and counselling, but it was running that did the trick.
“It was like she was her old self, it did so much for her, not just physically, but for her mental health it was really having a benefit,” says David.
“I thought was there a way that we could get involved somehow as a family, we would stay fit, it would help our mental health, and it would give Aaron something as well.
“It’s indescribable almost. For the first time in I don’t know how long, we actually felt that we were part of something.”
That was in 2014. Eight years on, the Kerr family, from Annahilt, Northern Ireland, have completed 49 marathons to date, including Dublin and Manchester, with David and Sandra pushing Aaron in an adapted wheelchair.
