The 13th annual Gator Clot Trot 5K & Fun Walk fundraiser is slated for Saturday, April 6, at Santa Fe College.
The event, which raises funds for the Bleeding Disorders Foundation of Florida (BDFF), starts with the registration at 9 a.m. and the 5K and walk at 10 a.m. It will be held at 39th Avenue Northwest Field at Santa Fe College (3000 NW 83rd St.) in Gainesville.
“The walk is supporting our Hemophilia Foundation, so it helps our kids and our families who have any sort of hereditary blindness or ones that they were born with,” said Dr. Tung Wynn, a pediatric hematology-oncology physician at UF, in an interview with Larry Wilson WPLL 106.9 FM I Am Country. “It just helps bring services to the families to get out the things that we like to try to provide.
“You include, you know, just kind of education for the families as well as to the community. We also want to make sure that kids are well cared for with metal alert bracelets and have opportunities, like having opportunities for college with scholarships and opportunities for summer camps.”
Wilson will be broadcasting the event on 106.9 FM I Am Country from 8 to 10 a.m.
Anyone who raises $25 or more will receive a commemorative Gator Clot Trot tee and other prizes.
Wynn pointed to the various conditions that hinder kids who have hemophilia.
“It’s really a hidden disease from the rest of the population but the things that these families go through can be really life-changing,” Wynn said. “There are a lot of the boys who have hemophilia…if they have uncontrolled bleeding, they can end up having very, very severe joint disease. And they may have arthritis like a 60- or 70-year-old by the time they’re 15 or 16. And that will stay with them for the rest of their life. Oftentimes, they end up in wheelchairs or in walkers…during the prime of anybody else’s life.”