Burnside woman busts a gut for Cameron’s appeal

Amanda Voss-Rorke took on a gruelling challenge in support of 12-year-old Cameron Lindsay, who suffers from a rare condition called PANDAS.

Amanda, a keen athlete who is originally from England but now living in Burnside, attempted to break the women’s World Record for the most sit-ups in an hour.

Last Wednesday, (August 12), she completed 2008 sit-ups in just under an hour. This was one more than the previous record held by India’s Janhavi Mahadik, who set the record in 2012.

The judges at Guinness World Records were not notified of the attempt, and as such the record is currently recognised as being unofficial.

The unofficial record was set in Sixmile Leisure Centre in Ballyclare, with Cameron’s mum, Natahsa among the crowd cheering Amanda on.

“We would like to express our sincere thanks to the amazing Amanda for all her efforts. It was an amazing feat of endurance and you could see her going through the pain barrier, but she was adamant she was going to succeed,” Natasha explained. “It was a privilege to witness such an achievement. All I could think about the whole way through was ‘she’s doing this for us’,” she added.

Speaking ahead of the fundraising effort, Amanda told the Times that she had only decided to undertake the challenge 10 days prior to the attempt.

“I have always done a bit of fitness but the most I had ever done sit-up wise was seven minutes,” she revealed.

Amanda has known Cameron’s family for some time, and has run with his dad in the past.

“Last year I did my first marathon in Paris and Cameron’s father Jonny was part of my running group,” she said.

The fundraising event last week is not the first time that Amanda has raised funds for children in the Newtownabbey area.

“I did a 100 mile run to fundraise for Ross Patterson, but then I tore my Achilles tendon and couldn’t run any further. It is because of this that I decided to do the sit-ups for Cameron, because even though I couldn’t run, I still wanted to do something,” Amanda added.

“I was thinking what I could do next and then thought of doing 2,000 sit-ups.

“When I googled it I found out that the record was 2007 and then the guys in work said they would only sponsor me if I beat the record, so I decided to go for it,” Amanda continued.

Given the short space of time in which to train, Amanda immediately set about preparing for her fundraising event. And she pushed herself to the limits as she trained through her pain threshold.

“I had to rest for two days as I had open wounds due to the friction on my coccyx,” she said.

The Lindsay family were on holiday in France in the run-up to the fundraising event, but Amanda still received messages from them thanking them on Cameron’s behalf.

“Jonny sent me a message saying that what I’m doing is fantastic and the family really appreciates it,” Amanda said.

Amanda is still in the process of collecting up the money she has raised, but expects the donations to total £500.

To donate to Cameron’s PANDAS fund, log on to www.gofundme.com/o9lra