Matt’s mission to help African family

Local Heathfield man Matt Rayner, a student, 24, has succeeded in completing a 100km Jurassic Ultra Challenge to raise money for a poverty stricken family in Uganda.

Incredible fortitude, courage and commitment from Matt and his amazing support duo of Mum, Allison Caffyn and girlfriend Izzy Jordan saw him cross the finish line after a gruelling 18 hours.

Now recovered enough to tell his story, Matt is positively convinced that he will be giving shingle beaches a miss for quite a while: “At this point it was 1am and my hopes and spirits had smashed by the shingle beach – I no longer cared about my finish time.”

The challenge was in aid of the Quicken Trust, a charity run by Geoff and Geraldine Booker. The charity aims to improve the lives of those in Uganda, specifically the village of Kabubbu. Otherwise known as the ‘forgotten village’, it is an area where families have been afflicted by abandonment, disease and war conflict.

Sarah Corin, from Quicken Trust explains: “The charity’s intention has always been the same – to support #KabubbuKids to self-determination and the village to a self-sustaining economy. Education lifts children to a place of hope and aspiration.”

She adds: “Matt and his family team are a generous and very kind financial partner to a poor family. Life in Kabubbu is meagre and very poverty stricken, so fundraising is a lifeline so the family can afford food and see Sarah, one of the children, through her years in education.”

Matt has been raising money for Sarah, her mother, Janat, and her brother for the past couple of years. All the money raised will help Matt and his team build a new house for the family as they are currently living in a very small, two-bedroom property. The team would also like to purchase a plot of land for the family, so they can grow crops.

Matt is aiming to raise £6,000 over the next two years. He explains: “We knew it wouldn’t be a quick or easy fundraising process. We needed bigger challenges and more time. I want to raise money for them because it is an opportunity to improve the lives of Sarah and her family in Uganda, while also improving my life through running.”

However, the brutality of the event soon hit home for Matt: “The reality was I finished at 1:30am and there was no one around except my girlfriend, my mum and two members of the event staff. I felt both happy and disappointed simultaneously. I think I was just too exhausted to have the capacity to feel anything.”

Despite this, Matt has already planned his next fundraiser: “I plan to run a 102km ultra marathon in New Zealand in February. I’d love to run the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path, perhaps as a marathon each day for 24 days. I’m always looking for a bigger challenge with my running.”

So far, £460 of the £600 target has been raised from the Jurassic Ultra Challenge. Donations are still open to raise the remaining £140, via https://wonderful.org/fundraiser/isleofwight106kmrunforsarah-4712d782

For more information about the Quicken Trust, please see their website: https://www.quickentrust.com/