Wayne Curran and Pat Farmer running through Taree
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00:00Hey, I'm Pat Farmer. I'm known as the ultramarathon runner and I'm here in Taree today.
00:05We're on our way running through on Wayne's run. This is Wayne Curran beside me
00:10and we've developed this run to try and encourage more people to become foster carers
00:15and for the system to actually listen to the foster carers that are already in the system
00:20so that they can get greater support. Wayne?
00:23Hi guys, I'm Wayne Curran. A little bit about my story and the reason why I chose this run.
00:29I've been in the foster care system when I was young.
00:34Unfortunately, it wasn't a good memory for me.
00:38The reason I'm doing this run is through the suffering, I ended up in custody 34 times
00:48and I've done over 7 years in jail.
00:50I've rebuilt my life through running, built confidence
00:54and I chose this run today as we go to Sydney and Pat Farmer's jumped the board
01:01just to raise awareness in the foster care system and make some changes.
01:10So Wayne represents the past, he represents the system the way it was
01:16and it was quite archaic and many people in those days were put into homes
01:20and suffered terrible abuse as a result of the poor system that we had in place back then
01:26and consequently they grew up to be angry young men as Wayne says,
01:31as Wayne quite rightly described himself at the time
01:35and then that leads to crime and it leads to a whole lot of social problems that affects everybody.
01:40So we're trying to break the cycle.
01:42So Wayne is trying to get the message through about the way the system was.
01:46I'm trying to let everybody know about the way the system is at this point in time
01:50and at this point in time there is 500 children that are in hotel rooms, caravan parks
01:55being looked after by departmental people because we don't have enough people
02:00who are foster carers to care for them, to take them into their families and to give them some love.
02:05So consequently we need more foster carers
02:08and then the way it needs to be on into the future is the government,
02:12the system needs to listen to those foster carers and create a network around them
02:17to be able to support them on the journey because it's not easy to take a child on,
02:22especially as Wayne will tell you, a child from a broken home or a broken child themselves
02:27or a teenager and to try and deal with all their issues on your own.
02:32So if you've got that support network it can make a huge difference
02:36and that's what Wayne's Run's all about.
02:39So we started at Kempsey and we run through Port Macquarie.
02:43We're here at Taree today and we're on our way to Foster
02:46and then from there we run through places, Booladella, Raymond Terrance, the Central Coast
02:53and then finish off at Sydney on Thursday.
02:58Our goal is to have a meeting with the Minister
03:01and to be able to relay all the messages that we've heard along the way from foster carers.
03:06We will be speaking to audiences every single night as we have done.
03:10Sometimes there's 50 people, sometimes there's 150 people
03:14and they're made up of people curious about our running, people curious about foster care,
03:19people that want to know how to get into becoming a foster carer
03:23and people that have already been in the system and want to be able to tell us how it can be improved.
03:28So we've been speaking to all these people and our goal is to get the message through
03:33to the Minister, Kate Washington, and to be able to have that meeting at the end of all this.
03:37So we're hoping she will come out and actually run with us.
03:41So we're speaking at Foster a little bit later on this evening.
03:45Of course today is the 22nd so we're speaking at Foster at the Foster Club
03:51and then we push on from there to Booladella.
03:55We haven't got a function on in Booladella.
03:57We'll just speak with the local people there and then we'll continue on from there to Raymond Terrace.
04:02We'll be speaking at people in Raymond Terrace and then again at Toopley
04:07and then we've got a big function organised on the central coast at King Cumber
04:11and we're encouraging everybody to get out to that.
04:14That's the night before we finish and then we push on from there to the finish line at Sydney Opera House.
04:21Well Sydney Opera House in the background and we're encouraging as many people as possible
04:25please come out with us and run that last section across the Harbour Bridge
04:30and down through into Lady Macquarie's Chair with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in the background
04:35and help us show the Minister that there is a lot of support for what we're doing.
04:39Wayne's Run's all about not collecting money.
04:42We're all about collecting awareness and collecting people to become foster carers.