Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I have 2 main reasons for wanting to do this
challenge, which have been my driving force since I started the training.

At the end of last year my health was very bad,
after being hospitalised with COVID in the summer then living with the effects
of long COVID, I thought I would never find my health again and felt really
low. However, October 2021 arrived and I watched in awe as my friends John Darwen
and James Baker took their final steps and became world record holders, for
doing this exact challenge except at a shorter distance then the one we are
aiming for this time. I was amazed, proud and encouraged to once again start my
path to a healthier me, and this unbeknown to me at the time was the start of
my journey to this world record attempt.

I had previously been quite a healthy person but
had a few setbacks in life which hindered my health, none more so than having
COVID. Nevertheless, I started back at the gym which was slow painful and
exhausting but I carried on, I was then Joined by John as we went to the same gym.
We trained 3-4x a week each having our own backgrounds for training and
learning from each other.

As my health returned and our bond grew, we
discussed John and James current plans to make a 2nd attempt at breaking the
world record for pulling a 1.5 ton van. These conversation over a short period
of time began to stir something in me ultimately resulting in me joining John
and James in this record attempt, and now with these amazing guys and backed by
our fantastic and knowledgeable trainer, Neil Salanki who if I’m honest I don’t
think any of us could have even thought about attempting this challenge
without, we are well under way for preparing for this attempt.

Although becoming healthier motivates me, my main
motivation and driving force for doing this challenge is raising money for
cancer research and my reasons for raising money for cancer research.

5 years ago, I lost my younger sister Louise to
cancer when she was at the age of 25. She left behind two young daughters Lacey
and Millie. She was an amazing individual and was never a victim to cancer but
a fighter of cancer, she remained strong and a massive personality right up
until she passed. When she passed my world fell apart, I was devastated and
broken, but thankfully I had my wife Kirsty to support me and pick me back up
and as I said before I was previously a healthy person, but this started my
journey into unhealthy habits and mass weight gain. It took a period of 2 years
for me to even contemplate beginning to live my life again, and even from there
the journey was slow.

5 years on and I feel so much better in my mental
and physical health, and my niece Lacey is part of my immediate family and
lives with me my wife Kirsty and our 2 kids Eva and Dexter, and she is another
reason that motivates me to do this challenge. Although time has moved on and
it has become easier to manage the loss of Louise, the hole that was created
still, and will always remain. For years I wanted to do something that would
honour my sister’s memory and would help others in the same situation, going through
similar circumstances and the opportunity to do this attempt came around and
the potential to raise money and awareness for cancer research entered my mind
I just couldn’t say no.

At the moment we are trying to get as many
volunteers and sponsors as we can. So if you can offer your time to help
volunteer at the event which if your happy with could include actually steering
one of the vans we will be pulling, or if you are an individual with a business
or an organisation that can sponsors us please contact myself John or James. If
your drop me a message via facebook Messenger, I will give you my contact
details, or if you don’t have facebook my email address is
danielcallaghanuk@hotmail.com.

For those people who are thinking of being
sponsors, Guinness book of world records will be there on the day, so there
will be a lot of potential media coverage, and we could look to have your
company advertised on the vans we will be pulling, so please feel free to
contact us.

The location of the event is being held at
Elvington airfield Elvington, York YO41 4XS and we plan to start things off
from 9am, which is where we will need as many volunteers as possible. For those
staying for the whole event, the plan is to set up some sort of campsite near
to where the attempt is taking place, so you can watch us through the night and
enjoy a night camping and barbequing, or there are local hotels in the area.