NO!! Can be just another beginning?

When you are thirsty enough, the water at the bottom of the jar was not a huge task to the wise crow. First, it was proverbial then we saw it in reality through a clip that went viral on electronic media. Yet, the message is the same. If you are task oriented by conviction, no challenge is too mean.

 

Yet, when I saw the slim frail figure of Subhashi Aubert, for a moment I did not succumb to the thought, that I could spell out an anecdote on this person that could make some one stop and stand agape and mutter – “Could she or did she do all this?”

 

Let me unroll this little yarn in her own words that really says “NO!! CAN BE JUST ANOTHER BEGINNING!!”. For this Lankan born Swiss………English……Sri Lankan…or… a woman of the world, has her own story to be told and to be heard.

 

This is just the way that Subhashi began her narration “Sport has always been a big part of my life. In school and through university I was in the football team, I played basketball, and I was also into a lot of winter sports. Then, I was chosen to do snowboarding for Switzerland, but unfortunately because of a knee injury on a half-pipe, I tore some of my knee ligaments and that brought to an end of my competitive sports career.  But, I always was keen on competing and never gave up on the idea of being a part of sport - because when you are at it, the person inside you breaks free and then I feel that I transformation from this fun loving personality into a mean competitor who will stop at nothing.  In spite of my injury, I was that, but, in my early twenties after I had landed on my dream job at the United Nations – or just UN, as a part of the World Health Organisation, I had the world under my feet. I was young, had my friends and the wind was blowing my way.

 

When everything was going fine, one day, I collapsed in my bathroom floor. Then, I was diagnosed with early stages of Lymphoma, which is a type of blood cancer. For a while, I was depressed asking ‘Why me? I am just starting my life, I am travelling’ and after being overqualified but without experience I got a job and then when everything was going really fine, I faced this hurdle.

 

“I decided to take things on its stride, overcome this state of mind, work things out one at a time and have something in my routine that would make me happy. At that point, I found that research had found that running could eliminate certain types of cancer. Then, I started reading about running and did just that. First, it was 5km, then, it became 10km, then it went farther and farther. Then, my doctor cautioned me saying that I may go down with arthritis because of the knee-caps. But, when I got my all clear, I decided to run the Paris half marathon, which is twenty-one km. I completed it in less than two hours and twenty minutes. This too was only a few months after my final blood transfusion. I ran it for CARE International at that time. I found a food programme and that was the start of my fundraising in my running journey. I was even running for the London marathon, but, when I could not, I realized that I was pregnant. But, then I ran in Berlin, I ran in New York, and by then, I was in the midst of my love for running.

 

“In the United Kingdom, they fundraise for everything.  Challenge events are some of the biggest fundraisers for organisations, so I thought when I came over to Sri Lanka moving from England, I wanted to explore these challenge events like sports. So when this mental health campaign came up, I told my boss, I am going to run for this, but I did not know how long it would be. But, I did not want to run a straight line, which I consider that anybody could do, so I chose to run from Nuwara Eliya to Kandy.

 

“They asked me – ‘You are running 70km but running from Nuwara Eliya to Kandy, is not a kind terrain.’ It was such labour of love that was combining the things I love the most – work I do and sport. I think putting on a campaign and asking for funds – to my mind, is good. I want to give a reason to people who donate and sport is such a big part of mental health. Even the Killinochchi programme was in the air for a while, even prior to my being a part of World Vision 18 months ago. Yet, it was on the hold due to some restrictions. Then, when I joined, I wanted do something to help and it is such a huge topic right now - I wanted to give life to this programme. Killinochchi is an area where World Vision had identified, because sports for these children, who were affected by the post war and so on, was a need. So I thought - ‘fund raise, run’.”

 

She said that she hopes that Killinochchi would be the beginning of a programme that is really big. She said that, at present, they are raising $ 5 million, but, the overall project is in the region of $35 million since they are hoping to have this programme across the Northern part of Sri Lanka. She added, “Now I want to run 90 km, starting from the Ella rock in January, and also pilot other sporting projects and fundraise further.”