Pushing 75kg 7 ultra-marathons in 7 days – that’s 340 kilometres
Ok here it is Mr Moon Gazer aims to push 75kg 340 kilometers in just 7 days to raise money and awareness for local male cancer charity It’s On The Ball.
Having previously pushed the bright blue barrel 239 kilometers to London, and last year completed 7 marathons in 7 days across Norfolk, this our third – and final – challenge is the biggest yet.
To date the beer push challenges have raised £42,000 for the Norfolk based charity and raised lots of awareness among young men, literally saving lives, but we plan to push that total to £60,000 which will tie in nicely with my 60th birthday.
The last marathon challenge was really tough – and my body only just coped with it – particularly the ankles which took a few weeks to recover – so I need to push myself even harder to get the message across.
For this challenge we plan to stay Norwich based rather than travel further afield, with a set route around key roads increasing the visibility of the challenge and getting the message over to young men of the importance of monthly checking themselves for signs of testicular cancer.
The work of It’s on the Ball really helps to highlight that it is young men – aged 18 -24 – who are most likely to be affected, but by checking themselves monthly they can have a 96% survival rate. However, late diagnosis can all too often be fatal as the cancer spreads very vigorously.
Sadly young men in Norfolk loose their life simply due to late diagnosis – that is such a waste of a life and so needless. No young mean in Norfolk needs to die of this cancer if we get awareness up.
The two challenges which we have is that young men of that age think they are indestructible, and that cancer is an old person’s disease, they often ignore the warning signs, equally they think that 96% can be cured so that’s fine.
I aim to highlight that that the survival rate is only that high with early diagnosis however a delay of just a few and that 96% can very soon become a death certificate.
By engaging young men in conversation during the beer push allows us and the It’s on The Ball team to explain the disease young men and to encourage monthly self-checking. Simply by starting the conversation the team know that lives can be saved.
We would welcome people to join him or cheer him on along the route and will be having a live tracker during the challenge to allow so that people can follow him and also help fundraising .
Its great to have company along the way and to take my mind off how heavy the barrel is! We also want to raise funds, and boost the total raised to £60,000 before I hang my beer push boots up.
The challenge will take place in the first week in October 2025 and the routes will be announced in due course, in the meantime you can follow and donate via Davids Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/BeerPushIOTB
You can learn more about testicular cancer and how to check yourself monthly by visiting: Itsontheball.org.