Michael Casey, a man from Co. Clare, is aiming to raise 10,000 euro for ISPCC Childline by April.
Michael Casey, who is a carer in a day centre for over 65s, is on day 78 of his 100 day pull-up challenge for ISPCC Childline.
Childline was taking on average of 800 calls a day pre-pandemic, and even more during the pandemic.
Michael has raised over 5,600 euro for the charity and is aiming to have €10,000 raised by the end of the fundraiser, which is finishing in April.
Speaking about his decision to undertake the challenge, Michael says that youth mental health and wellbeing is a big passion of his.
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“I personally struggled with mental health problems since I was young. I also wrote a book called Breaking Free which is a compilation of short stories that surround the theme of mental health. I’ve always been advocating for children’s and teenagers’ mental health,” he told Buzz.ie.
“Back in November, I was thinking of doing a fundraiser, and I was planning on holding it over Christmas. If I had done something in November, it probably would have been something small. So I decided to go bigger and set myself the challenge of doing 100 pull ups a day over 100 days.
Speaking about the physical aspect of the challenge, Michael says that it is difficult, and sometimes can be hard to find motivation.
“For every €1,000 euro I’ve raised, I completed a different challenge each time. That included 100 pull ups with 15kg weight added on, and that went up with every thousand.
“It’s difficult to keep going at it, because your body doesn’t get a rest. But it’s worth it because it is for a good cause.”
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Michael says he has received a lot of support from ISPCC Childline and the wider community.
“Childline have been brilliant,” he says. “They got in contact with me before I started the challenge and they sent me a pack with a t-shirt and other stuff in it. They always share the videos of me doing pull-ups on Instagram and comment regularly. They’re so appreciative, and that drives me on a good bit.
“I’ve also met other people doing fundraisers, and we support each other online a lot. It’s almost as if it’s created a community of raising money for different causes, it’s brilliant.”
With schools closed on and off, and with no social outlets for young people such as sport available over the past year, children have suffered a lot throughout the pandemic.
He is currently on Day 78 of the challenge and is hoping on the last day to do 800 pull-ups, one for every child who makes a call to Childline daily.
“On the last day, I’m hoping to do 800 pull-ups to represent the 800 children who ring childline daily. I want it to be something bigger though, almost a spectacular feat because 800 pulls is a lot to do in one day. I’d love if the gyms were open, as it’d be the perfect place to do the challenge. We’ll just have to wait and see.”