Former Spalding Grammar School pupils are taking on marathon challenge to raise money for R;pple Suicide Prevention

A group of five friends who met at Spalding Grammar School are embarking on a huge challenge to raise money for a charity project close to their hearts.

Friends Mario Fragale, Oliver Shore and Max Pearce, who have stayed friends since leaving school and moving to London, will be embarking on a weighted marathon, which will see them run 26 miles with 20kg of weight on each of their backs.

Aided by Matt Pearson and Matt Holland, who also met the friends at the school, the team, who have taken the name The Untitled Game Changers (UGC), are planning on running the marathon to raise funds for R;pple Suicide Prevention.

Mario, who is working as a musician, said: “We all know people who have been affected by the impact Covid has had on mental health. I’ve seen it in the music industry and Oliver has seen it in his job in the British Army.

“When we heard about R;pple Suicide Prevention we thought it was such a good thing so we thought we would try to help to raise some funds.”

R;pple Suicide Prevention has been set up by Alice Hendy who sadly lost her brother Josh to suicide in November. He was just 21 years old.

Alice is working on an online monitoring tool which flags potentially harmful content and replaces it with a range of mental health support channels for users in crisis.

On March 27, the friends will embark on their challenge with Mario, Oliver and Max running, Matt Holland coaching and providing physiotherapy help and Matt Pearson taking photographs, in a bid to help Alice meet her £50,000 fundraising goal.

Mario said: “We are hoping to raise at least £1,000 to go to Alice’s work which I think we will definitely get to. We’ve spoken to Alice and it’s an amazing thing that she is doing.

“Training is proving to be quite hard but the good thing is that we’re all in touch and we push each other every day.”

This isn’t the first time the friends have taken on a challenge for charity.

In the first lockdown the group, plus five other friends, ran 30,000 miles as part of a USA Coast to Coast challenge, which they were able to do in this country and on their own.

Oliver said: “We called ourselves the Untitled Game Changers because we’re just a bunch of nobodies really. But we wanted to prove that anyone can make a difference and to inspire people too.”

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ripplesuicideprevention