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Gareth Fullerton

Belfast brothers set to eclipse £100K fundraising target with boxing event

Two Belfast brothers are closing in on an incredible fundraising milestone which they aim to eclipse with a white collar boxing event.

Back in 2019 Mark and Ray Ginley set out to raise £100,000 for a number of charities close to their hearts.

Four years on and they have already climbed past the £96,000 mark, and next Saturday they hope to hit their target through their latest fundraising night.

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The brothers - who own Tribe gym in Belfast - have assembled 20 novice boxers who will go toe-to-toe in the ring.

"It promises to be a great night. We will have 10 bouts scheduled and all the fighters have worked extremely hard over the past few weeks," Mark said.

"There will be five male and five female fights, and it's all in aid of the Children's Cancer Unit Charity. It is taking place at the Devenish on Saturday night, April 29 and it should be a great event."

Mark added: "We set a charity target of £100,000 back in 2019, and we are now up to £96,000 which is incredible. We are pushing now to try and get over that £100k mark.

"We probably would have hit our target but coronavirus >Covid stalled things. We have managed to hold a number of events since then, including boxing bouts, a charity cycle where we did 24 hours solid on a bike, and we did the David Goggins challenge where we ran four miles every four hours for 48 hours.

"We have donated money to Mencap, Muscular Dystrophy and Women's Aid, and we have raised money for the Children's Cancer Unit Charity once before.

"We also raised money for TAMHI through an event that actually didn't happen due to Covid, but we donated the money.

"And the other fundraising event we held was in aid of a young Belfast fella Niall McCahey who required specialised treatment in the United States."

Mark says the brothers have been overwhelmed by the support received in their fundraising quest.

"It is because of all our Tribe members who have got behind our appeals, and the community aspect we have in the gym," he added.

"Charity is one of our core values, giving back to people who need it. We have four core pillars and charity is one of them.

"We are closing in on £100,000, but we won't be stopping here. We plan to run other events in the future.

"It's just that this milestone is special and it will be great to eclipse it. Hopefully we get over the line in the next week or so."

Mark has witnessed the great work done by the Children's Cancer Unit, and he hopes Tribe's latest fundraising effort can help the charity purchase more state-of-the-art equipment to help treat young people.

"Having young kids ourselves, we couldn't think of anything worse than watching your own child get cancer. We have seen the work this charity does and it is incredible what they do," he added.

"They have this new robot machine that costs £4,000 each. They can treat kids when they are in school so the child can still be around their friends while they go through their therapy.

"A lot of kids are receiving treatment and missing out on school, and they struggle when they go back to school because they haven't seen their friends in a while.

"They can be anxious about going back, so these machines mean the kids can still attend school while receiving therapy.

"Our donations will go towards the unit getting more of these machines."

Anyone wanting to donate to Mark and Ray's fundraising appeal can check out their JustGiving page.

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