15K a day target for Sion’s Darren

A DUNBREEN Rovers football player has decided to combine his pre-
season preparations with a charity fundraising campaign.

Darren Havern is in the middle of a 150km in 10 days challenge, which will see the 36-year-old father of two run, on average, 15 kilometres daily for 10 days, while raising much-needed funds for Care for Cancer in Omagh.

Although the Sion Mills native admits he is relatively fit through his 
six month association with the third division Fermanagh and Western side, running was never something he particularly enjoyed aspired to 
do before starting this challenge last Friday.

“I started running eight weeks ago because I thought I’d try to get 
fit for the new football season,” explained Darren, who is a manager 
with River Island.

“Then I thought, before all this quarantine is over I’ll do something 
for charity and because we’ve donated to Care For Cancer before and 
they do a lot of work for people around the area, we’d get behind them.

“Initially I thought about doing 100K, which would be 10K a day, but 
then we came up with 150 because it sounded like a better number! 
There was no reason behind it, but it seemed like a good challenge to 
do 15km a day.

“By the time I’m finished I’ll have done three and a half marathons, 
but I’m halfway through it [on Tuedsay] and my legs and feet are on 
fire!

“I wanted to prove to myself I can do it but I actually quite like 
running now, so I’ll have to keep it up once I get back to work [after 
lockdown].”犀利士
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Omagh-based Darren had hoped to raise £400 for Care for Cancer before he started 
his odyssey and although he has already surpassed that sum, he is keen to raise as much as possible for the local charity.

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/darren-havern