A trio of runners are doing their bit to raise thousands of pounds for charity.
Andy Melville, Steven Sheehan and Joe Pepper decided to embark on the David Goggins Challenge, which sees participants running 4 miles, 12 times, over 48 hours.
The Dundee United fans were hoping to raise an initial £1,000 for football mental health charity, Back Onside, by taking on the challenge created by the ex-Navy Seal Goggins.
After crossing the finishing line on Sunday afternoon the three ex-Grove Academy pupils had smashed through their target, raising over £3,000 in the process.
They started on Friday afternoon before being greeted by friends and family at the Esplanade in Broughty Ferry on Sunday.
Runners back charity
Andy, 31, said the impact of not having sports during lockdown had been one of the contributing factors for them picking Back Onside as their cause.
“Mental health is a massive talking point across the country,” he said.
“Over the last 15 months the pandemic has obviously played a major part in people potentially having problems that they might not have had before.
“A lot of times, football in particular was people’s release, to either play or go to watch a match.
“They’ve had that taken away from them a couple of times over the last year. Based on that, and the work Back Onside do, we thought it was a good charity to run for.”
‘We are amazed just how much money we have raised’
Prior to setting off on this weekends challenge Andy said the they had been running three times a day to get prepared.
He added: “The midnight and the 4am runs were maybe the two runs we had to push ourselves more to get out the door.
“We are amazed just how much money we have raised. We set-up the fundraising page around six weeks ago.
“At the start of last week we were sitting at around £1,300, one day we started it had grown to around around £1,800.
“We were keeping people updated on social media and we said it would have been great to have got to £2,000.
“Back Onside have also been sharing our story and we also wore the bibs provided from them at the start and end of the race.
“By the time we have finished on Sunday we had raised another £1,200 which was brilliant.”
Being prepared
Andy said: “Anyone who has done this challenge before will tell you the hardest thing is getting the body prepared to go again, as it wants to recover.
“We all put in the training and I think that’s helped massively to not feel too bad in the aftermath of doing it.
“It was great to have people there when we finished at the Esplanade on Sunday and to raise the money for this charity.”
Back Onside says the money raised by the lads could help to “save lives” in providing vital counselling sessions for those in need.
Founder and CEO of Back Onside, Libby Emmerson said this could potentially help to fund as many as 70 counselling sessions.
“The money these lads have raised is fantastic and to nominate Back Onside from the mental health perspective is incredible,” Libby said.
“This money could go and support 60 or 70 individuals through counselling sessions and without that money we wouldn’t have been able to do that.
“We can’t thank the lads enough for their efforts and highlighting the charity and the work we do.”
Those looking to donate can visit the Just Giving page here.
Anyone looking to speak with Back Onside about support with their mental health can contact them by calling 07528243100 or emailing libby@backonside.com.
Ex-pro footballer Jamie Winter helping people with mental health