Much-loved Buncrana girl to be remembered at Waterside Half Marathon

The field for the 42^nd Waterside Half Marathon on Sunday, September 7, is set to feature a bumper team of pink-clad runners all honouring the memory of a much-loved Buncrana girl.

Katie Fullerton tragically passed away in her sleep in March of last year at the age of just 15 months old.  Her parents Deirdre and Declan wanted to do something to remember her and raise funds for two local organisations that supported them in their darkest of days: First Light and Buncrana Children’s Charity.

What started off as a small group of their family and friends signing up for the Waterside Half has now snowballed into a bumper group of over 100 runners taking part on race day and raising thousands of pounds for the charities online.



‘Team Katie’ will take to the start line at Ebrington Square clad in their bespoke pink shirts from O’Reillys Sports and will be supported by at least 100 more people around the 13.1 mile course.

“It has been an extremely difficult time for all our family,” admits Deirdre. “Declan’s younger sister, Katrina, sadly passed away in France from cancer and was buried on the Saturday and just five days later we lost our precious baby girl, Katie,

“The pain and the shock has been indescribable and we were looking for some way to honour her with close family and friends.
“We heard the Waterside Half was coming up in Derry in September, and we thought, ‘Why don’t we just sign up for that and tell our brothers and sisters? It was meant to be something small — just a way to remember our wee angel.”

As more people learned of their plans, the numbers signing up and donating became anything but small and Deirdre admits the support of their wider circle and their willingness to get involved, no matter what their level of fitness, has been a source of great comfort at this most challenging of times.

“The support from the entire community and from our work colleagues has been overwhelming in the best way,” she continued.
”We never expected it to take off the way it has, once people heard about what we were doing, we started getting messages from others saying they wanted to take part too.”

“Seeing people come together for Katie - people who never ran before, now out doing Couch to 5K - it’s just been so touching.
“A lot of people in the group aren’t regular runners or have never ran before, but they’ve committed themselves to training.
“Some are doing it as their first ever race and that determination is so inspiring — it’s all for Katie and you can feel that in every step people are taking.”

The public can support Team Katie’s exploits at the Waterside Half by donating online at Team Katie on GoFundMe and the family appreciate the opportunity to give something back to the organisations who supported them.

“These organisations make a real difference, and we want to help them help other families,” Deirdre added. “Buncrana Children’s Charity offered us a holiday to try and help us as a family — we were too numb to take them up on it but the gesture meant so much.

“First Light got in touch to offer their support to me and Deirdre and also offered play therapy for our eldest daughter, Ella, who was only three when Katie died which meant the world.”

The route for the 2025 Waterside Half Marathon, hosted by Derry City and Strabane District Council, will start and end in Ebrington Square and cross the Craigavon Bridge, the Peace Bridge (twice), the Foyle Bridge and the Pennyburn Footbridge.
Athletics NI have also confirmed that the 2025 Half Marathon will also be the Northern Ireland and Ulster Half Marathon Championships race. The event is chip-timed and every finisher receives a commemorative medal and t shirt.