Vernon man running a marathon a day in May has raised about $36k and counting

Marathon a day raises $36k

A Vernon man has been running a marathon – 42.2 km – a day since May 1, and he’s not stopping until the month is up.

The marathon-feat Oliver Stankiewicz is completing is to raise money to keep equipment helping with breast cancer treatment and lumpectomy surgeries done at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital at VJH.

Stankiewicz and his partner Marie Articus are the founders of The Movement Project which raises money for Vernon Jubilee Hospital Foundation, among other charities and nonprofits. VJH saw Stankiewicz’s mom Laura through the last days of her life after being diagnosed with uterine cancer.

“It's a challenging time right now for people financially, so I know how much it is, to sort of, be able to donate any of your money at this point in time,” said Stankiewicz.

“That was why I chose to do this, to show the community how important this was for me, and for my partner Marie, to sacrifice an entire month of some pretty tough days to show the community that this means a lot and this is a pretty big deal.”

Running the 42.2 kilometres takes about four to five hours out of Stankiewicz’s day. He’s doing the running in bursts throughout the day, and says he’s still trying to work a full time job and maintain his relationships and dog dad duties.

So far the marathon-a-day raised over $36,000 for a new piece of technology, which costs a total of about $150,000.

Stankiewicz is hoping to raise as much of the equipment cost as possible. Now, he says, Wave Philanthropy has pledged to match up to $25,000 in donations from now until June 1. This means every donation will be doubled.

“We're fundraising for an actual piece of equipment. So it's a very tangible thing that we will see the benefits of 200 plus patients every year being able to utilize,” said Stakiewicz. “So that's what intrigued me about sort of jumping on this, and to be able to basically fundraise for something that we can see the benefit for right away.”

When asked what he plans to do on June 1, Stankiewicz says he’ll still be in the middle of a 365 day running challenge and won’t be taking a break. Though, he plans to run less than 42.2 km.