School friends set for first in year of charity events

A group of Spalding Grammar School alumni are taking on charity challenges to help stay in touch, with the first in solidarity with another former schoolmate.

On March 27, Oliver Shores, Mario Fragale and Max Pearce will run a marathon around London while wearing 20kg backpacks and raising money for R;pple Suicide Prevention.

The Untitled Gamechangers, as the group and their coaching team including Matt Holland call themeselves, all live in and around London but are keeping in touch thanks to their Grammar School roots.

To strengthen that bond they’ve pledged to do four charity events over the course of 2021 and for the first marathon effort they chose to raise money for R;pple, a mental health charity looking to develop technology that could stop people being able to search for methods of suicide online.

Oliver, who is a Royal Engineer in the Army, says they were inspired to fundraise for them after seeing its founder Alice Hendy’s story and because one of their old school friends has also battled mental health issues.

“During the first lockdown about ten of us raised money for the emergency services,” Oliver said. “The idea behind Untitled Gamechangers is us as a bunch of friends trying to make a difference and inspiring others that you can make a difference no matter who you are.

“The first fundraiser is to do with mental health. One of friends was affected quite seriously and we didn’t realise at all at the time.

“We just wish we were there for them.

“We saw about R;pple on the TV which Alice set up after losing her brother and thought it was the perfect charity to do something for.”

The Untitled Gamechangers hope to do three more as yet unidentified challenges and hope to raise money for a good cause each time.

They’re aiming to promote an environmental concern for the next challenge.

Running the marathon with the 20kg backpacks was Oliver’s idea as an extra challenge to his usual army training and he says Mario, who works as a musician and model, and investment banking analyst Max are all doing well with their training.

“It’s going very well and we’re already up to running a half marathon with the backpacks.

“We’re hoping to complete it in under eight hours.

“This whole project has definitely already created a bigger bond between us.”

You can donate to R;pple here.