The Annie Effect Changing lives one run at a time-you Can Too!
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley June 26, 2017
Author Annie Crawford
Distributor: New Holland Publishers
ISBN: 9781742578958
Publisher: New Holland Publishers
Release Date: February 2017
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Can Too is a charity that has changed so many lives in the most unexpected ways, by providing a pathway to facing fears, losing weight and gaining self-confidence, just for starters. Can Too, a non-profit organisation, channels all the monies raised into cancer research which has given many young research Scientists the time and funding to dig ever deeper into the causes and possible cures for some of the more challenging cancers that attack the human body.
But how is it that one woman searching for a reason, a purpose in her life, can step back more ten years after starting this organisation and say – Hey, well done! In this very personal memoir Annie Crawford offers a window into believing in self, believing that, Yes, I can do it, whatever IT may be.
The story begins in her childhood, growing up in a family of seven children in the suburb of Normanhurst, with parents who always looked at a challenge square on and worked out ways to meet them as they came along. This was a good foundation for the many challenges and issues of self-doubt Annie was to face in her roles as a Social Worker, mother and wife and then as the founder of Can Too, many years later.
Her love of running was to be the instigator that was to see Can Too evolve when the family returned to Australia after many years living and working in Switzerland and America. This return to Australia also saw Annie once again, trying to work out what was the purpose of her life and what was it that she really wanted to do.
A glimmer of an idea, thrashed out with her husband Simon, led to Can Too being established with a foundation base of just seven, which slowly grew to 25, then to 54 people registering to undertake the training program for the Blackmore’s Sydney Running Festival and raise funds for Cure Cancer Australia, the organisation that supports young Australian scientists in cancer research.
From this very humble beginning Can Too has now become a Foundation, has raised more than $18,000,000 has coached and inspired more than 13,500 people and offered the hope of a cure to many thousands more.
As you move through the chapters of Annie Crawford’s life to date, the most powerful thing to be presented is the complete understanding she came to when she understood fully, that by giving back, she received far, far more than she would ever have expected on the day when she and Simon sat down and discussed the fledgling idea that was to become Can Too!
As she says on the final page of the book, ‘There were once so many things I thought I couldn’t do, but now I know I can do anything. And you know what? You can too.”