Coronavirus: Ballyclare hockey players to run 1.000km for St John Ambulance

Players will be covering 1,000km over May.

The 15 players from the Rectory Road club will be covering 1,000km throughout May to raise vital funds for the volunteer-led, charitable non-governmental organisation.

Commenting on the generous effort, Dave McComb, who came up with the idea, said: “We are aiming to run a combined 1,000 kilometers (at least) in May to raise money for St John Ambulance Northern Ireland.

“There are 15 Parkview Hockey Club players taking part from both the men’s and ladies’ sections. We all have different experiences of road running and ages range from 20 to 60.

“We are running independently from our own homes, in line with the social distancing measures. Everyone is tracking their runs using Strava and sharing them with each other to help keep motivated.

“At this stage, we’ve run more than 400km and raised more than £300 of our £1,000 target. We’re confident of meeting our target and hopefully even surpassing it.”

Mr McComb added: “We chose to support SJA because they recently announced that they needed to raise £100,000 to support their continued commitment to help combat the Covid-19 crisis. We are proud of the members of our squad who are key workers, with one member even working for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, and wanted to give back to everyone who is making Northern Ireland safer in these very challenging times.

“As well as raising money for such an important cause, it is also a good way for us to try to stay in shape during this time and when the time comes that we can play hockey again, we hope to be able to hit the ground running!”

An online fundraising page has been set up to collect donations. At the time of publication, £385 has been raised.

If you would like to make a donation, go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/parkview-hockey

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