We spoke to Ross after he completed his incredible ‘Goals for Good’ challenge, where he ran 1km for every goal scored during the World Cup and encouraged people to donate to charity. Ross chose to support CHECT, a cause close to his heart, and has been sharing his journey with us every step of the way. Over to Ross to tell us more about his challenge…
After 5 months training for Milton Keynes marathon in May, I was looking for my next goal to motivate me to keep running and staying fit. I love my football and so challenge alongside the world cup seemed like a fun idea!
I’ve raised money for charities before and donating is a very personal thing I feel, so I wanted to encourage people to donate to a charity close to their heart, but if they didn’t have a charity in mind, they could support my charity, CHECT. Thankfully for me, quite a few people decided to donate to CHECT via direct donations or via my fundraising page, but I also had donations to Brain Tumour Research, Cancer Research and others.
I support CHECT because I had retinoblastoma when I was two, losing my left eye, so I have always kept CHECT close to my heart and doing what I can to help spread awareness and raise vital funds.
The challenge itself was rather testing at times, especially during the group stages when there were up to 6 matches a day, and also the hot weather! There were 74 goals in the space of 4 days. With shift work and being a father to two young boys, there was a lot of logistics needed in order to keep up with the running total. My wife Ellen was an incredible support during the challenge, motivating me to keep going and also making it possible to spend my spare time pounding the pavements around Lichfield. One specific morning I was due on an early shift, but it was due to be 35 degrees that day and thanks to some late night/early morning goals, I went out at 4am to complete 20km before work! That was the peak of the challenge thankfully though!
It was a lovely opportunity for me to run with members of family and friends as they joined me on my challenge on Parkruns, etc… People who have supported me for as long as I can remember, including my sister Lucy and Dad Phil, but also my best mate Josh and two sons Otis and Evan.