Members of our first team staff are reaching the end of their 10k a day challenge for Prostate Cancer UK.
Strength and conditioning coach David Waldie, head physio Tom Whittamore and assistant physio Dan Birkinshaw have been running ten kilometres per day to raise awareness for the charity.
The trio have five days left to complete the momentous challenge.
David said: “It [was] started three or four years ago by Stephen Gilpin the physio at Rotherham United. I think Stephen lost a member of his family to prostate cancer in the past and wanted to do something for charity, so he set up Prostate United.
“[In] The first year I think they ran ten kilometres every day in November.
“In the second year a couple of other clubs’ medical staff and sports science staff joined in.
“Then myself and Tom [Whittamore] joined in last year – the third year – and were essentially running 10k every day in November.”
The two members of the Stags’ first team staff have continued the challenge this year.
“They [Prostate United] have raised thousands of pounds now.
“It’s taken off this year. From Mansfield there is myself [David] Tom Whittamore and Dan Birkinshaw who is the club’s assistant physio. Us three are the club’s representatives.
“We all aim to run ten kilometres a day, the other lads have but I got to day 17 and I had to have a few days on the watt bike because my shins were giving me some grief.”
The Stags’ staff members have ran over 250 kilometres during the month of November and are approaching the final few days of the challenge.
“We’ve got five days left so we’re trying to raise as much money as possible.
“Your shins, your back and your knees start to feel it a little bit. To be fair though once you’re through the first week you tend to just get used to it.
“We just wanted to complete the challenge and make sure that we have done one [run or cycle] every day. Even the 25k bike ride is quite the session. We just wanted to keep raising money and awareness. We’ve tried to get it all out on social media.”
Supporters can follow the remainder of the journey on David and Tom’s Twitter pages.
“We’ve had really good feedback. Especially from a lot of the players, they’ve all sponsored us. We’re posting it all over social media for friends and family who I think because we did it last year know how [big] the task is.
“There’s a great community online too with sports science and medical staff from other clubs sort of egging each other on. We’re all ging through it at the same time.
“We raised £3,000 last year on our individual JustGiving page. We’ve not really set a target [this year]. It would be great to go over what we did last year but we understand it’s hard to get money from people.
“Anything we can do to raise awareness is beneficial,” David added.
The strength and conditioning coach was keen to highlight the importance of raising awareness for prostate cancer.
“Any signs or symptoms go and get checked out. It can’t do any harm. Even if there is nothing wrong at all, there’s no harm done [in getting checked out],” David said.
“It’s always important to go and get checked for anything that feels or sounds out of the ordinary.”
To donate to David and Tom’s JustGiving page click here.
To follow the remainder of their journey on Twitter click here.
