A Co Down man is taking on an ultra marathon challenge (52 miles) in a bid to raise funds for a charity supporting a school friend diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
Steven Morgan specialises in endurance challenges and previously summited Slieve Donard 100 times last year, raising more than £3,500 for Chest, Heart and Stroke NI along the way.
The Hillsborough man was inspired to take on his latest challenge when he heard the sad news that an old school friend, Julia Nelson-Kearney, had been diagnosed with MND.
Read more: The Co Down man who summited Slieve Donard 100 times in a year
"We went to school, a big group of us together and Julia had it about six months before we all found out, she kept it quite quiet," he said.
"One of her friends Stephanie was doing a challenge at the start of the year and I had donated, and Stephanie messaged me to say the challenge was for Julia, so that inspired me to do something for her."
He said he had also been impressed by the commitment of former professional rugby player Kevin Sinfield in taking on strenuous challenges for his friend and former rugby colleague Rob Burrow, who was diagnosed with MND in 2019.
"I saw Kevin Sinfield's stuff and his mad, mad challenges," he added.
"He was hoping to come over and help me but the Rugby World Cup is on at the same stage so I think they're hoping to organise something over here after that."
Steven will be running from Newcastle to Rostrevor along the Mourne Way on Saturday 24 June, raising money for charity the MND Association and said he has been training hard.
"I'm doing a lot of running down in Co Wicklow at the minute, I'm planning to do the Wicklow Round at some stage which is 63 miles in under 24 hours over 26 mountains," he said.
"So I want to do something for somebody, I do a lot of these endurance challenges for charity, so I wanted to focus on doing it for somebody this time.
"There's only 51 people apparently with it in Northern Ireland, so it's a small charity but it can provide a lot of help and sometimes the bigger charities get a lot of publicity, so it's to try and promote it.
"People have been very generous, have come out to support me and run with me and with a bit of luck, I'll have a few people out on the day.
"So it's on 24 June, starting at one minute past midnight on Saturday morning and with any luck, I should finish it within 12 or 13 hours."
If you would like to donate towards Steven's fundraising efforts, you can do so here.
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