Monkey Mia boys finish their Covid-19 desert challenge

Friday, 31st July 2020

A huge congratulations to our heroes this week, the Monkey Mia boys (Harry Chisholm and Jim Salter, Phil Davies, Dave Cato and Andrew Urquhart), who have completed their Covid-19 desert challenge. This makes 3 outback challenges they have successfully conquered and over $117k they have raised for Parkinson’s Research over the 3 years. What an incredible achievement!

We are so grateful to the team of this year, and the previous years, who have put their all into raising awareness and funds for Parkinson’s. We asked Andrew a couple of questions about the trip:

What was the most rewarding part of the trip?

Raising over $30k towards this great cause! It’s quite rewarding to do these kind of trips with 3-6 of your mates – lots of camaraderie and never any arguments.

Did you encounter any problems?

We did encounter quite a bit of rain in between the Glengarry Hilton not far from the QLD border and Brewarrina which wasn’t so much of a problem as a fun time the next day as we were slipping and sliding around in the mud! Riding around in the mud choked up the mudguards and tyres so we did need to do some light repairs to pop the mudguards back together.

What advice do you have for others looking to fundraise?

I think our success has come from a fortunate group of mates and most of our funds have come from friends and relations. They’ve been very generous with large donations. My best advice would be to create a large email list of all your friends and family and colleagues and keep emailing them with updates on your fundraising and challenge. I sent out 3 or 4 email and Instagram updates during the trip with photos and each time I sent an update we’d get another flux of donations.

Start with a high target (not too high) but be ambitious so your friends and family know you want to raise a large amount. We also make sure to donate to our own page to start it off and then continue with more donations as we go to keep the ball rolling.