The father of a tragic Perthshire toddler is to scale back his fundraising efforts after spending two and a half years “constantly repeating” his “worst nightmare”.
Alan Glynn and his wife, Ruth, have tirelessly raised funds for the Meningitis Trust in memory of their daughter Alexis Rose, who died from the disease in 2011.
She and her twin sister Christina were struck down with a sickness bug and 19-month-old Alexis Rose died in her sleep after developing meningitis.
Now, more than two years after her death, Alan has decided to take a step back, having already raised more than £67,000 for the charity. Alan said he still plans to keep certain commitments but wants to devote more time to his family.
He said: “I’m still doing my 200 races but I’m just choosing my races more carefully, and I’m still keeping annual things, like the Ben Nevis Walk and the football tournament. It’s just that the fundraising is kind of consuming me at the moment so I need to cut back.
“It’s turned into a full-time job and I just want to spend more time with my family.
“You’re always repeating the story about your daughter dying and you’re between a rock and a hard place because you want to raise money but you are going through your worst nightmare every time you mention it, or make a speech, or you write an email, or organise an event. Obviously it’s very upsetting going over and over the same thing in every email you send out, so I just need to relax a bit.
“I’ll still be active but I’ll no longer be sitting till 4am on the iPad, constantly looking at stuff. I’ll put the iPad down and just enjoy time with my children and my wife.”
He said that he still has events planned until later this year but will then begin to take a back seat.
“I’m quite busy until October but then I’m going to sit down with my wife and work out my races and concentrate on the races and the two annual events, which will still be big in their own right,” he said.
“I’ve done so much in a short space of time once all the money comes in it will be us up to about £67,000 in just over two and a half years. I’ll still do it, I’ll just not be doing it to the same level.
“It feels amazing (to raise so much money). It feels great to keep her name going along and knowing that the money is doing so much good work but there comes a point when you just need to step back.
“My health hasn’t been the greatest but that’s one of the reasons I’m taking a step back I want to be here for my kids as long as possible. I don’t want to be putting too much unnecessary stress on myself.
“I’m not stopping, I’m making it fit around me, rather than consuming me and making it every single day of my life. It’ll be on my terms and my family terms.
“Constantly repeating your worst nightmare is no good for your mind even if you think you are OK at the time, you’ll never get her back.”
The twins were born almost three months premature and at birth Alexis Rose weighed just 2lb 12oz. While the girls both became ill in February 2011, Christina did not go on to develop meningitis and is now an active toddler.
She and older brother Billy were joined by baby sister Amber last year.