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Gary McKee
71 Plays2 years ago
In this episode our guest is Gary McKee.
Gary is a fundraiser and takes on some hefty challenges to raise money for his chosen charities which includes our charity partner Macmillan Cancer Support.
You may remember last year we spoke with Gary whilst he was completing 110 marathohns in 110 days as part of Macmillans 110 year anniversary.
Gary is coming close to completing a full year of daily marathons, 365 in 365. We recorded this last week and today he has completed day 347.
Enjoy listening to this chat with Gary and if you would llike to sponsor his incredible efforts please see the link on our social media posts. which is http://justgiving.com/threesixfive
Follow Gary on Twitter
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Transcript
Introduction and Gary's Marathon Challenge
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to episode 63 of the UK Run Chat podcast. I'm Joe Williams and in this episode I chat with Gary McKee. Gary is a fundraiser and takes on some hefty challenges to raise money for his chosen charities which includes our charity partner Macmillan Cancer Support.
00:00:17
Speaker
You may remember last year we spoke with Gary while he was completing 110 marathons in 110 days as part of Macmillan's 110 year anniversary. Well Gary is coming close to completing a full year of daily marathons 365 in 365. We recorded this last week and today he has completed his 347th
00:00:44
Speaker
Enjoy listening to this chat with Gary. If you'd like to sponsor his incredible efforts, please see the link on our social media posts. That link is justgiving.com forward slash 365. That is the three words, 365 with no spaces. So justgiving.com forward slash 365. Enjoy.
Adjusting to Daily Marathons and Physical Challenges
00:01:03
Speaker
Welcome Gary. Thanks for, thanks for coming back on. How are you? Um, considering I've had, uh,
00:01:16
Speaker
I'm good. You're doing good. Yeah, I'm okay, yeah. Yeah, good, good. I was just, I was looking on your Twitter before just working out which day it was today. 342 on the trot. Yeah. Wow, wow. How you feeling? How's your body holding up? I think after a while, as soon as anything else,
00:01:40
Speaker
You just get used to doing what you do, and it comes to norm, build a better routine, and you go with it. And that's what I've done, and I've had, don't get me wrong, when you're doing what I'm doing, you've got to pick up little niggles and what have you, and I've just managed those. So I do feel pretty good, to be honest with you. Yeah. Good, good.
Motivation and Previous Fundraising Activities
00:02:02
Speaker
So for those who are listening who haven't seen your challenge, do you just want to explain what you're up to?
00:02:11
Speaker
I started the challenge on the 1st of January, 2022, and I'm running a marathon a day for the whole year, so 365 medicines in 365 days, and I'm on day 342, I've got 23 left to do. Yeah, and this is all part of your fundraising for Macmillan? Yeah, it's fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support, who I've been a fundraiser for for the last 20 years,
00:02:45
Speaker
I wanted to raise some funds for them, I ran 110 medicines on the truck last year, I raised over £200,000 and I knew when I finished that there was there was plenty left you know the 110 was because Macmillan were celebrating the 110th year
00:03:06
Speaker
help out with hospice because Covid had decimated fundraising opportunities. So that's when we actually last spoke on the podcast, wasn't it, when you were doing 110, 110. You've done some challenges before that as well, haven't you? I started as a fundraiser when my dad passed away and I thought back to the
00:03:36
Speaker
the day that we were told he had cancer, and how people were being told that devastating news was where he had been. And although my dad was a cancer survivor, I wanted to do something in his memory known that people were going through the difficult times that we'd gone through. So the first thing I ever done was a cycle through Brazil. And there were 60 people took part, it was around about
00:04:06
Speaker
forestry, bit of road work and off-road and it was difficult, you know, and very as lonely. And I was saying how that was benefiting other people. So I had a bit of a bug, following the other climb Kilimanjaro and I trekked to New Zealand. Then we started with our family and I realised I didn't want to be away from the family. So I started doing more challenges at home. And on the coast, the coast, I cycled it.
00:04:36
Speaker
A land from Lancet did come across. And that was fantastic. I think I was running about 32 mile a day for 27 days. So in the country from the bottom to the top, I wouldn't say a snail's pace, but I was running pace where you could just stop and remember when we were in Scotland, it was very peaceful, I had cars on the roads and we were watching a guy fishing and we were just standing on the beach watching him catching salmon. And it was just lovely, you know, you ate all the birds.
00:05:05
Speaker
It was just fantastic. So I've done lots of fundraising in the past year. Yeah. Yeah.
Family's Supportive Role in Fundraising
00:05:11
Speaker
Yeah. Very, very good. And you mentioned your family that I remember, I remember us talking about this previously because your family get involved as well, didn't they? Yeah. So whenever we do something, we do it as a family. Yeah. And when we started the 365 or before we actually started it, we sat down and we discussed how they could help out.
00:05:33
Speaker
So I mean, he said he was doing 365 with me. What I didn't want it to do was impact too much on family activities and stuff. So, although I would go on holiday, the family would. But he said, well, if you're doing 365, I'll do it with you. I'm not going on holiday.
00:05:50
Speaker
And the other son said, well, if he's not going, I'll bring me mate. He wanted 10, full marathons with me. Said they do. She does a few miles every night on the spring bike. I'll board us at least 10 miles. And he's done 45 full marathons with me. So he's heading towards covering 5,000 miles himself this year. He's only 15.
00:06:20
Speaker
He'll make you a cup of tea when you come in after you manage this. Oh, bless him. Absolutely. People often say about his sleep patterns. I can tell you, I go to bed with a smile on my face, knowing all that the children are contributing towards what I'm doing, and it makes it so much easier. Yeah, it's brilliant. It's phenomenal. They're doing some serious mileage, aren't they? Serious mileage. It's all on their terms as well. My wife's just got to pick up my other son.
00:06:50
Speaker
the natures in the house we've made so we're preparing dinner for tonight so when we're waiting for the sun to come in and they're just helping out around the house and doing things because you know when you run a marathon a day, it takes up a lot of your time and you don't get a lot of time to do other things but it's different there because we are all doing stuff together there, preparing the mail with me, you know, our minister has already done a cycle and ball going to the gym and he'll do his, when he's had something to eat but
00:07:19
Speaker
it's phenomenal to be able to watch them and do things and not even have to be asked to do it or do all the know. It's 365 and they're just open away and they do it. And on the weekends when boys are not at school, they'll come and do a fun marathon with me on the bike and he just loves to crack. He loves what's going on. He loves chattering with people and you know, I've shown that difficult doesn't mean impossible. As adults, that's something that we need to take on ourselves. We often put things to one side and
00:07:50
Speaker
It's either for me, it's either one day or it's day one. And usually the latter, it's day one, let's start now, let's not wait, do it now. And that's what I've always encouraged my children to do, go and sit back and watch time go by, do it now. And the deal, I saw it, it's great to see that. Yeah, you must be very proud. That's a great saying, one day or day one. Very good, yeah, I like that. Because people do a couple things often. Yeah, you do.
00:08:20
Speaker
of time. When you look back, you can't do the things that you wanted to do when you were younger because you're no longer younger. So do it now. That's what I've always said, do
Community Involvement and Support
00:08:30
Speaker
it now. Yeah, very good. Take me back to the planning of this one then, Gary, because you did your 110 in 110 last year. Did you know you were going to go for this at that time or were you looking for something else after you'd finished the 110?
00:08:53
Speaker
particularly easy. The hardest part is juggling work and balancing your family life and things like that. Because it was only 110 days, it was all going to be done within tunnels. So when we decided, I knew that I could stretch myself further and it's also an opportunity for a lot of other people to get involved. I wanted to get into schools and
00:09:20
Speaker
the children about the benefits of exercise, and also the benefits of fundraising, how you can help other people whilst you're helping yourself. Yeah. There was always a lot of focus on that. There was a focus on galvanizing the community and getting people out moving. There was a Facebook page set up called inspired to move because people had seen what I was doing. And there's now there's thousands of people on that who's following it daily, and who's, who's being put with each other.
00:09:53
Speaker
get out and do something. There was lots of lots of different things and ultimately it was about raising money to help the charities and also whilst raising money signposting that the charities are there and how they can support people who's you know found themselves in in dark times. So we sat down and I put a bit of a team together I asked people who would help me and then a lot of people just got on board and
00:10:21
Speaker
You know, there's people who I haven't met before who come and said, can I run with you? And we became friends and people were following me on Strava and asking if they could join me, which of course the answer was yes. So there was somebody come from London. I was down in London a couple of weeks ago. He'd organized an event for me that raised, I think it was 5,000, 6,000 pounds. So lots of different things have happened and people have traveled from lots of different places to come and join me. Yeah.
00:10:51
Speaker
I love your mindset. The 110 was only four months. It's like it's such a commitment that is. It's brilliant. You spoke about juggling your time then. What does your day look like? What does it look like all year? Do you run at the same time? I try to work at the same time for a couple of reasons. One is because your body gets used to
00:11:18
Speaker
times stuff so you clock, you toilet things at the same time and you know and I had to obviously I got to balance work with it as well so I've been working mostly on the afternoon shift it starts at two o'clock so that would allow me to get my run in get home get fed if I would do a bit of recovery do me social media stuff and then go to work yeah
00:11:45
Speaker
It's trying to get as much sleep as possible as well because the most important part is your recovery and your recovery made sleep. I've kept on the annual leave. I didn't use much late last year and work I've helped out. We get special leave for community activities and things like that. So work I've helped out, my colleagues have helped out in the office. I've worked a little bit from home, which has helped enormously. But then I picked up an injury round about July. Okay.
00:12:15
Speaker
was a hamstring problem and it just meant that all my marathons were getting done in round about 3.45 but then I picked up this injury and I had to slow things right down just to get through the day and that meant that I had to go earlier because it was taking longer and it just took up more of my time so I was sitting out earlier and that's fine until you know the dark nights come and dark mornings and stuff so it's
00:12:45
Speaker
It was a case of six o'clock start in the morning, as opposed to eight o'clock, where it usually been. But when I float down, it also gave a lot of people the opportunity to join me because the pace was a bit quick for them to begin with. Yeah. You know, not the constant 345s out. Yeah. It's difficult for people to come and run them sort of times. So I just float everything down 10 minute miles, and it was over four hours and
00:13:15
Speaker
I was getting comments on Strava, you know, why has your past changed? Can you just not do it anymore? And things
Balancing Personal Life with Marathon Commitments
00:13:21
Speaker
like that. But, you know, I think people needed to say the bigger picture of what was going on. Did people realize I was going to work? Did they realize I had three children and a family and my wife workships the house down itself and, you know, the kids don't feed themselves. I feed them, you know, so there's all sorts of things there to balance there.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah. I started managing my expectations instead of other payables. Yes. Yeah, exactly. I mean, social media, I mean, it can be such a positive place when somebody's looking to comment like that. It's mad considering what you're doing. I mean, you're still doing four hour marathons when you're injured. And it was just a case of slow down. Yeah.
00:14:12
Speaker
It's been a massive support from the community that people put boxes out for me which has got water in. So if you imagine we were running on the hottest day of the year that the UK has ever seen.
00:14:26
Speaker
It wasn't as it was in some parts of the country, but it was still 33 degrees. And when you're running, you need an abundance of fluids, especially if there's a lot of his outrunning. So people used to put baskets out, that had bottles of water in, and then they'd reprench them every single day. And there was a guy who used to put some red dots on the path where I was running. And where a red dot was, 10 foot from it, was an emergency stash of water.
00:14:50
Speaker
So there was times when we were going to those but I also have people at the halfway point who would have always have a cup of tea, a cup of coffee and cake. They come out every single day.
00:15:04
Speaker
during the, when it was called, they'd have a whole lot of bottles and towels. And then somebody saying what was happening, they brought robes. And then somebody saying, I was wearing the robes and they brought dry robes. So everybody rallied about me. It's honestly, it's absolutely phenomenal. It's fantastic what people are doing for me. When I first started, there was a guy got in touch with me and he said, can I come with you? And those exchanges went back and forth.
00:15:32
Speaker
his bike and the last message he sent was oh by the way I'm 75 year old and I'm thinking oh what's going to turn up you know so anyway this guy come and you could tell that he'd looked after himself and he'd always picked me to run and he was a bit of a he'd been all over the world as an official and things and he'd run about 10 miles with me and he said I've really enjoyed that he said can I come back again and I said yeah I'm here for a year you know come back as often as you want so the next time he came back he went to the halfway point where there was somebody there and they had a cup of tea and
00:16:02
Speaker
And the guy making the cup of tea said, we like cup of tea. He said, please, milk and sugar. And he said, he put his hand out and he says, Bill Arnus. And the guy looked at him and he said, plumbing help, Bill. He said, I haven't seen you for 60 years. I just hold together.
00:16:17
Speaker
No. Wow. Yeah.
00:16:34
Speaker
That's amazing. Sometimes when I go out now, I go up to that, I get to me halfway, I point knees, Brian's standing with Bill, you know, they became friends again, and it's just, and his wife's with him, and Bill's wife's there, so there's four of them just talking, chatting around. And he'll say, I brought you some cake open, honestly. That's the sort of support that I'm getting. It's fantastic. Yeah, brilliant. I remember you, didn't, on the last one, you had a beer, didn't you? Did the local brewery or something, do you have a beer? Am I remembering right?
00:17:05
Speaker
that again this year so they've called it marathon man 365 and they've kept it going the bottle didn't they put it in casks as well and all the profits it's a non-profit pay for the brewery but all the profit will go under they just give them page and normally they get round about five thousand pound on so because this is going
00:17:24
Speaker
longer because it's a full year, it'll probably make a little bit more. Which, where do we get them then, Gary? Because I'll order them in for Christmas. Yeah, you can get them in for Christmas. It's online. It's called the Ennerdale Brewing Company. Ennerdale. And the B is Marathon Man Ale, IPA. Right up my street, the IPAs are.
00:17:48
Speaker
They're getting stronger though these IPAs are you see some of them on the shelf and they're nearly 7% I'm like right I was gonna say yeah review have you have you had one or not
00:18:16
Speaker
good for you. You know, I just thought, you know, we'll not go there and we'll wait on New Year's Eve and then get a skin full.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, brilliant. The way that you've brought the community together there is amazing. I was looking at your video earlier on your Twitter and there was people out and there was a sign up I saw that somebody had done as well. Is there a countdown sign I saw? Yeah, so when we ended December, it was 31 to go out and the sign went up and now they put a
00:18:47
Speaker
I change the day every day, so it's 25, 24, 22nd tomorrow when I run past it and there's a basket there. So in summer there was water and chocolate and stuff. Now there's hot verm door, so I come back to a hot verm door and a mince pie and stuff like that. Yeah, nice. Oh, it's fantastic. Nice.
00:19:07
Speaker
I can't wait till the pigs in blankets come out. Yeah. Well, it's the season now, isn't it? It certainly is. Are you doing the same routes or are you mixing it up at all? What's that look like? Apart from five years, I've done the same route every day. And the reason for that is because it works for me. Everybody knows where I'm at at any time. They can jump in, jump coach. If people think I'm the only
00:19:35
Speaker
able to do an hour, you know, they'll come and do an hour. I'll do a full lot, I'll do a half, I'll do whatever. The only times I haven't been here, I went to Manchester, I was invited to the Ruby League World Cup final, I actually brought the trophy out on the field. How did you? That is nice. Brilliant. It was fantastic. I got
00:19:56
Speaker
I got brought onto the field, as you know, what I've done, and I'm a Ruby Lake man. So in Ruby Lake circles, a lot of people knew about it, but to pay it.
00:20:06
Speaker
you know all traffic to the World Cup final and actually take the trophy onto the field to a standard deviation which was incredible. Yeah what a moment wow. Yeah so I ran I ran in Manchester about a year before I went out and I'd done my first ever park run which my marathon was incorporated the park was incorporated into my marathon distance. Yeah. And it was the Stretford park run to normally have around about 400 people that advertised in advance that I was going
00:20:37
Speaker
and we put it all turned up and I set them off and it was just a crack, you know, created to be chattened to fork and there was lots of money went on the page that day, I did a five live interview with Kish Warburton and he's a great fella, he's tried to get the word out there about what I'm doing and that went really well and then the following day we watched the file and then we traveled down to London, somebody, as I said earlier, somebody had
00:21:05
Speaker
and he'd set up his own event in London. So I went down to the Olympic Park and we ran on the community track at the Olympic Park. There was one of the people turned up for that. So they're the only ones that have really taken me away from the normal route.
00:21:21
Speaker
strange not being there and not having your routine and doing your routine when I normally massage relates with the guns and stuff. It was just a bit strange, but it was worth it financially. There's lots of money went on the page because of it, so it was all good.
00:21:43
Speaker
How lovely of them to recognise what you're doing and let you come and bring the trophy on the pitch. That was all sorted out by John Dutton as the chief exec of the World Cup. He wanted to recognise what I had done and he wanted to tell people and show the world.
Health and Inspiration from the Marathon Journey
00:22:01
Speaker
uh kev sinfield come on the field at half time and kevin had phoned us up himself uh asking how he was going to get through or giving him a few pointers on his seven orders in seven days yeah he knew what i've done in the past i actually the first london marathon i had done i ran to london to take part in the marathon so it was about 50 mile a day for the week and then run the london marathon so i i talked to kevin i spoke to him in the in the tunnel at half time before he came out
00:22:29
Speaker
He is a lovely fellow and you know, he's doing remarkable things. So it was nice just to catch up with him and it was fantastic at John to give me the opportunity to carry the World Cup out. There won't be many people does that, will there? No, no, very special, but very special. You mentioned your recovery there. Come on, give us your tips. What do you do for your recovery? You mentioned sleep.
00:22:51
Speaker
Yeah, sleep is obviously important. A lot of people often ask me, do you use ice baths and stuff like that? And they always say, no, not since I've had the heating fixed. I can't think of anything worse than sitting in an ice bath. So I do the opposite. I use saunas. I've got a sauna in the gym at home. Yeah. I just find that having heat on your body is more, I want to say more effective. I don't really know because I only use ice if I'm injured.
00:23:21
Speaker
I use my massage guns, I get a massage once a week. I use the treadmill quite a bit just to keep my legs moving. But again, it's all about time and balancing your time so if I'm going to work, don't have that recovery time, what I do is I don't allow myself to be sitting in the seat for long, I'm up and moving about keeping my legs moving. So it's about your hydration and your calorific intake as well. So somebody prepares me mails,
00:23:51
Speaker
A friend, we were kids, we knocked around together as kids in his business, that specialises in healthy food and he drops food drops a week. So as soon as I finished running, I'm all up in the fridge, I take something out, I probably do the microwave and I'm eating five minutes later. I'm running 185 miles a week, so you can imagine. You're getting through some food. If you lose a pound a week,
00:24:19
Speaker
£52 over the year, it's almost four stone. Four stone is a lot of weight to be learned and it's very easy to lose a pound of weight when you run 185 miles. So I keep an eye on my weight and during the summer months it was dropping quicker than it should. I was trying to bulk up but you can only eat when you're hungry early this year.
00:24:42
Speaker
You know, you start force reading yourself and I didn't really want to do that. So I did keep an eye on the weight. And I'm fine, you know, to be honest, I'm in good nick. I'm 9,000 mile, I really am. I look good in the field good. Yeah, good. And you mentioned, you know, somebody helping with your food there and you mentioned about a team early on as well. You've,
00:25:08
Speaker
You always make time, I see your social videos each day and you thank, because you have sponsors, don't you, for your vest and that kind of thing. I do, yeah, yeah. Always make time for that, don't you, I've seen. I do the video in the morning, I send it to one of the girls who looks after all the social media stuff, and she puts it out on Twitter, she puts it out on the 365 page. I manage my own Facebook page, but it's what keeps things going, it keeps things right, and it spreads the word. On the Facebook page,
00:25:43
Speaker
And again, the similar numbers on Strava. And it's a lot of traffic. We had a company come and done a video for us. That's on the, that's where you'll probably find it. You know, on that side,
00:25:59
Speaker
almost a million views. So it's a lot of people saying things and it helps spread the word about what I am doing too. Yes, it certainly does. It's brilliant. Of all the challenges you've done, is this the hardest Gary or one of the others? Where does it rank? In terms of difficulty, 24 hours isn't it?
00:26:25
Speaker
Well, again, this is your mindset because I was thinking it's a year, but you're breaking it down. You've got to break it down to make it more manageable. You know, I've always said it's a 365 page trick, so no idea is I put a piece in place every day. Yeah. And towards the end, you start seeing a picture.
00:26:43
Speaker
the more you're doing, the bigger the picture becomes. And that's exactly what it is. Because when you think about it, it was today's really impound to charities, then it started involving lots of other people who are now doing things themselves. And it's just become more than we ever thought it would. I do break it down in my head to make it more manageable. And it works. You know, I've had 127 people run full Madison distance with me. Some of those people
00:27:13
Speaker
went from couch to five care this year, and now they're on medicine distances. You know, I saw there's over 60 people cycled full distances with me, including lots of children. I think that's fantastic in itself for setting people little goals. And when they're running, it's because they have slowed down, it's talking and so it managed with me to diversional therapy, take the mind off what they're going through.
00:27:39
Speaker
compare it to the people who you're raising funds for and what they're going through and you never ever look back you know you just think what's in front of you what's behind you is gone if you're 20 miles in you've got an hour left you know and you don't and that's what I said to people I said you've come for three hours now so get that other hour out of here and you've done your first marathon yeah and people just push on they always we talk about the company and weather about it raining all the time and
00:28:05
Speaker
I remember last year when it was absolutely lashing down. There was only two of us because of COVID restrictions. And I started laughing. And the guy said, well, we're laughing. He said, what can absolutely be funny? And I said, I'll tell you what I'm laughing at. I said, somebody's going to walk out of the cancer world today. And they're going to ring the bell signifying that they finished the treatment. If they walk outside and it's like they're still standing in this rain, unless she has the nicest rain they've ever seen.
00:28:32
Speaker
And that's what we always do. That's what we're here for. And he just picked both of us up. And I always tell that story when it's crashing down and people are struggling. I say, well, London needs somebody else's rent. Somebody got me a decoration for a Christmas tree and it actually said London needs somebody else's rent.
Impact and Funds Raised
00:28:49
Speaker
And it's just when you think back about what other people are going through, when you compare it to what you are going through, it's just temporary isn't it? It's just till you get
00:28:59
Speaker
You're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it for somebody else to give them the support that they need. And that's how we get through the day. And it is one day at a time. Today's run for tomorrow. And that's how we process it. I've processed it like that for 11 months. I've got 23 days left to do. And I only say those, I don't say them as days, as opportunities, opportunities to help other people. That's all they are.
00:29:23
Speaker
It's very inspiring, Gary. Very inspiring, mate. Very good. Knowing you, having spoken with you a couple of times now, are you thinking about what's next already, or are you just looking forward to having a day off on New Year's Day?
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah, we're going to New York at the end of the month, January for Alfie's birthday, so it'll put us all together as a family to do something together for a few days. I'm looking forward to that. I'll be training down, obviously. I'll be knocking 100 out a week, I would imagine. I've got the treadmills in the
00:30:02
Speaker
I've got my route that I can use. I'll use different routes and go to different places. And I'll enjoy it. I'll go for a run and I'll probably stop and have a computation while I just do a bit of paper watching and watch the world go by. I live in the Lake District, so I've got plenty of beautiful places that I can run in. I remember I used to say to the wife, you're a folk artist, she'd say, I pick me up at Keswick and I'd run over the mountains and do a 30 mile and drop into Keswick and she'd come and pick me up.
00:30:34
Speaker
And it's just, you know, it's fantastic that I live in an area of outstanding beauty. But I also live in an area of outstanding people, people who are willing to support what I'm doing and get behind me and help me. And that's what the community, you know, the power is what I'm doing. And I'm proud to live in a community that supports me in the way that they do. And it makes it easier when you're doing stuff. It also makes it easier if you're doing something to somebody else. Because if you're just doing it for yourself, it's stop because you're only
00:31:04
Speaker
you know, you're only letting yourself down. I don't want to let anybody down. That's why I never stopped. You know, I've never failed in anything that I've set me, me hard on going. Um, it's all been about helping other people. And I watched my dad do that all his life. He used to dress up with Christmas and all folks on the santa and he used to serve his, his money up and buying presents and he used to sing Christmas songs to them and all
00:31:31
Speaker
You can give people a lot of things, but most importantly, you can never give anybody's you time. And once your dad do that, it's probably turned me into the person that I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's lovely to hear these stories behind, you know, because people see these... This is why I like doing the podcast. People see that you're doing challenges and they see other people doing challenges when you hear these stories like that behind it. It's very inspiring. Very. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:58
Speaker
So tell us where people go to sponsor you and follow them. Yeah, so I've got a just given page, www.justgiving.com forward slash 365 and the 365 is written, it isn't numbers, it's 365s and the letters. And at the moment, I think there's with the gift aid, it's about £320,000 at the moment. So we're doing okay, we're doing well.
00:32:27
Speaker
Very good. Whatever we get in, we get in, you know, that's a lot of money to help people. I always say to my children that £50 buys a food blender for somebody with throat cancer. So if you think of all the £50 and the £320,000, that's a lot of people that you're helping and the people that you're reaching out to. But on the other side of it, it's people who are running with me who's getting fitted, who's looking at things now and saying, I can do that. There's pages and they'd be like, oh, I don't know.
00:32:53
Speaker
you know, they've got that out of confidence about them to push themselves a little bit further, you know, to dip that door in and just test it and see what it's like. Yeah. So there's lots of positives came out of it. Yeah.
00:33:07
Speaker
I'll include your link in the show notes when we're sharing this through our channels as well. We'll share them and we'll tag you in so everyone can follow you as they're over these last 23. So best of luck with these last 23 and over there. When will your routine change on Christmas Day or not? There's loads of people out on Christmas Day. I thought there would only be me and I would go up. I mentioned it a while ago. It was about June. I said about Christmas.
00:33:36
Speaker
Well, I'll be out. And somebody else said, I'm out. And everybody kept on playing. I'm Spartacus. I'm Spartacus too. I'm a hunter. Why did you think you'd be on your own? I said, because it's Christmas day. So, I'll be a lot out. It won't change. The road won't change. The only day it will change is the final 365 where I finish up the rugby club as opposed to at my house and probably
00:33:58
Speaker
Lots of people down in the streets of Kledemuwa, like they did on the 110. And then we'll be up at the rugby club for a grand finale. Brilliant, brilliant. Will you treat yourself to a beer then, New Year's Eve? I'll have a gallon of Sergio. You deserve one, isn't it? I'll have a good x-frame. We'll have a good time, that's what we'll have. One thing I probably don't do enough of is reflection.
00:34:31
Speaker
yes yeah definitely I mean I mean it's incredible what you're doing it is incredible and yeah and then I hope you yeah take some time to reflect and enjoy your trip to New York with your family have a lovely Christmas and
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. I mean, everybody gets touched by, pretty much everybody gets touched by cancer and, you know, it's an amazing amount of money that you raise and it's a brilliant challenge that you're doing. And best of luck with the rest of it. And I'm sure we'll speak again soon when you do whatever crazy challenge you're doing next year. I'm sure we're real fast. Yeah. All right. Thanks ever so much, Gary.
00:35:16
Speaker
No bother, thanks very much John.