Raising Funds for Davina's Ark down under

NO road will be too long for Newry born man Jack McClleland and his partner Megan who are running the Sydney marathon next month to raise funds for Davina’s Ark.

The couple, both of whom are proud graduates of Queen’s University Belfast, first decided to travel to Australia in October of last year as a way to see the world after having spent so many consecutive years in education and employment.

Whilst finding themselves as being at what could be described as one of life's many crossroads, uncertain as to what their next step will be in-between now and the time that will elapse before they make the decision to either move back to Ireland or stay permanently in Australia, the athletic duo have decided to use their new found love of running as a means of giving something back to a charity that has helped so many people from the community Jack hails from.

According to Mr McClelland, who along with his partner has recently completed the City to Surf running event along with 70’000 other competitors, one of the biggest runiing events of its kind in the world, both he, Megan and his brother Stephen first developed a passion for putting one foot in front of the other following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Being on the same path

“ I recently came out to Australia last October with Megan who is from Trillick in Co Tyrone,” said Mr McClelland.

“We had met in Belfast at University. Both of us were on the same path. We both had finished our masters at Queen’s and we were both working as paralegals.

“ I was working as part of Granite Legal services in Kildare Street for three years. Megan was working in Phoenix Law in Belfast as a paralegal also. We were going to go down the path of qualifying as solicitors but we had already went through five years of university after coming straight out of school and then we were working full-time.

“We just thought that we would probably never get another time to travel so we decided to travel after finishing our masters. It was a toss up between Australia, America or Canada and it just came down to Australia. We left in October of last year where upon we back packed through the outback and the east coast and then we settled in Sydney in December where we have been living ever since. We both work with the same company in legal compliance in the city centre.

“Myself and Megan and my brother Stephen started running during Covid as a way to get out of the house and it did just develop from there and all three of us started competing in all of the races.”

Running the full distance of a marathon in the blistering hot Australian weather is no feat of athleticism to be undertaken by the faint of heart. Thankfully however this is not the first 26.2 miles of cold, hard and unforgiving road that Jack and Megan have had to traverse in their careers as runners, with the pair having already successfully overcome the challenge of the Belfast marathon last year.

Training Days

“Both Megan and I have ran the Belfast marathon, in May of last year,” Mr McClelland said.

“ In addition to this I have ran five or six half marathons and Megan has ran two or three other half marathons. I have also played football my whole life, for both Ballyholland and the Bosco.

“In May of this year we competed in the Sydney Half Marathon and this Sunday past we competed in the City to Surf event which is one of the biggest races in the world. This involved us running along with 70'000 other people on a 14km race from the city centre to Bonzai, which would equate to about a distance of nine miles.

“Once we had finished this event I thought to myself that we have to do this three times in one month, I think we will be fine though.

“The marathon is scheduled for September 17 and they have just released the route that we have to run and the support that people have been showing in Sydney for the last two races that we have had has been immense. The training that we have been putting in over the last six months and the support of the people on the streets will hopefully push us through.

“When we ran the half marathon here it was winter and it was about 24 degrees so you can only just imagine what the weather is going to be like in Spring. We have been using a 16 week training plan. We used an App and we factored in what time it is we wanted to complete the race in and it developed a training plan for us. We have both been running four to five times a week. This incorporates easy runs, sprint work and the long distance runs. We have been doing this for the last 11 weeks. Hopefully his will stand by us.”

Whilst there are many charities which Jack and Megan could have fund-raised for in Australia the altruistic and athletic lawyer explained why it is they decided to settle upon using their blood, sweat and tears to generate money for a charity which is a little bit closer to home.

Once in a lifetime opportunity

“Whilst we did run during Covid, we never thought of using it as a means to raise money for charity,” said Mr McClelland.

“We would usually get overwhelmed with training. We were sitting thinking what should we do with the Sydney Marathon. Obviously they are promoting to raise money for local charities here in Sydney but we just thought that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to run the Sydney Marathon with the event applying to become one of the major marathons along with New York and London.

“We thought that there would be nothing better than raising money for a charity at home which we actually get to see the fruits of our labour going into a charity and seeing where the money goes.

“My Dad Stephen McClelland along with the WIN Enterprise helped to develop Davina's Ark. “When I was younger during my GCSE'S I did work experience with Davina's Ark and I absolutely loved it. The family know Rosemaryfrom the organisation very well.

“Another reason for selecting this charity was for not only how impactful their work is with members and friends that we would know well but also other people that we would know. When we posted that we were going to raise money for Davina's Ark we got so many messages from people and it is an absolutely fantastic charity. They do amazing work with addiction and mental health and we thought it would be a great charity to raise money for.

“We have set a target of £500 and we are sitting at £340 and we are still a month out. So hopefully we can get over this target. A bold target that I would like to hit would maybe be £1000.”

If you wish to support both Jack and Megan in their charitable endeavours then you can make a donation via the couples Justgiving page which can be found at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/sydney-marathon-4-davinas-ark?fbclid=IwAR195wf4hROVMtgWwJ4bAtKqAfWji2ky2Hy_PQPlGNruSezEjUqwTiU-CdE