GoodHeart | 7-y-o Lauryn Jones walks for breast cancer fundraiser
Published:Saturday | November 5, 2022 | 12:06 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Lauryn Jones made her mother, Latania Morrison, proud when she participated in and completed the Rayz for Life 5K Run/Walk organised by Jamaica Energy Partners Group last Saturday, which got its start at the Emmanuel Baptist Church.
The event was one of the closing events in the two months of raising awareness about cancer — first in September when the focus had been on the prostate, and then in October when it shifted to breast cancer.
Lauryn, who started some time after 6 a.m., following the main group of runners/walkers, was excited and smiling. However, by the time they completed the route, she was all tuckered out and the smile was long gone. Her age might have had something to do with the seven-year-old’s demeanour afterwards.
Morrison told The Gleaner that after telling Lauryn about the plans to participate in the event to raise funds for the Oncology Unit at the Kingston Public Hospital, her daughter insisted on accompanying her.
“She said she wanted to come with me, so [I] asked her if she understood what ‘5K’ meant, and so I showed her where we travelled from home to a particular place, and she said she wanted to do it anyway,” Morrison shared with The Gleaner. She anticipated some complaining but was pleasantly surprised that Lauryn persevered as long as she did.
“I wasn’t worried because I figured that she was going to whine a little, and, yes, she did, around the three-kilometre mark, which was good,” a proud Morrison said of her daughter.
As she hydrated after the race, Lauryn was in no mood for Mommy’s jokes but, after a bit of nudging, was soon back to her old self and smiling again, even though she was in no hurry to get from the chair on which she had taken up residence. It seemed that her mother would have a long wait before returning home.