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Matthew Mallett

The Medicine Ball Challenge

Donate to Matthew and help them hit their goal of £2000!

Raising money for ABF The Soldiers' Charity and  Combat Stress, the challenge involves cuffing a 3kg Medicine Ball to my wrist for 12 days!  It may not sound that heavy but being tied to the medicine ball continuously for 12 days - including international work and travel - is going to be a significant burden!

The ball is a physical, visual and tangible representation of the invisible burden of mental health so many of us can experience.  One in four adults experience mental illness, and many more of us know and care for people who do.

Any support you can offer in trying to raise £2000 for these fantastic organisations that provide essential support to our serving and retired personnel will be gratefully received.

Thank you! 🙏🏼🙏🏼

Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

£2,789 + £552.77 GiftAid

My Goal

£2,000

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My Updates

Final 24 Hours!

Well aren’t you all quite the bunch of legends!!! 11 days in to the medicine ball challenge and I’m astounded by the good will and generosity of you all who have collective raised over £1850!!! 😃🙏🏼. I am extremely grateful to all that have donated so far. Please help get the team over the line to target by closing out the remaining £158 needed to hit target 🙏🏼

Day Nine

An emotional weekend of not being able to escape the ball and walking down a US sidewalk dressed in shades and a medicine ball has naturally drawn some inquisitive questions and quite a few odd looks! But I’ve been truly humbled by the generosity of people from not just Team UK here and back home, but also from the partners, buddies and colleagues working alongside me from across the Five Eyes nations 🇦🇺🇨🇦🇬🇧🇺🇸🇳🇿 All of you have been so supportive in getting me well over halfway with my fundraising target with now just only three days to go! 😬 However, having misplaced the handcuff keys for most of this afternoon, the reality started to dawn on me at one point today that the challenge might well be lasting longer than anticipated! 😬 Fortunately (for me - and my wrists!) they were located and my blood circulation to my hands was restored this evening! Any support you are able to give to help get me to target for these two great charities ahead of my last day on Friday will be much appreciated. Thank you and look after each other! 🙏🏼 ⛓️🔐

Day Four - The Problem

The attached image, coupled with the fact that over 150,000 UK Armed Forces personnel served in the the 20 year Afghanistan campaign alone, hopefully illustrates the scale of the problem. If 1 in 4 adults suffer from mental health at some point, that potentially equates to ALOT of veterans who need our help team - and that’s just Afghanistan. 😔 Please keep your kind support coming. It WILL make a huge difference for our serving and veteran community. 🙏🏼

Day 3

Day 3 and if I’d stuck to the original challenge length of one week, I’d be over halfway tomorrow! Instead, I still have over a week to go! 😆 Handcuffs are definitely taking their toll on the wrist and today the ball felt heavy and was a more prominent irritation - much the same, I’m certain, as those suffering from the torment and trauma of mental health issues. Unlike them, at least I’ll be able to take the handcuffs off after 12 days. However, your generous support will go a long way to helping them remove the mental shackles and get the relief and respite they need. 🙏🏼🙏🏼 ⛓️🔐

Day Two

First full (and long) day of the challenge today, reflected by the tiger-stripe-like red marks appearing on my wrists! The ball is certainly having a great effect on starting a conversation about mental health and veterans. The highlight of the day has to be a fortuitous and coincidental encounter with Mike, a military veteran and US contractor, who was accompanied by his PTSD assistance dog. We exchanged stories and experiences which was truly humbling and epitomised the community your generous donations will provide help and assistance for. 1/4 of the way to target now thanks to you legends. Please continue to support where you can. Thank you. 💪🏼⛓️🔐🙏🏼

Day One

Officially getting underway with the challenge at the British Embassy Washington today, my boss doing the honours of strapping me to the medicine ball that has travelled with me over to the US.

Two things I have learned today:
1). Handcuffs chafe very quickly!
2). '3kg' is foreign language in the US. 6.6lb, is however, more generally understood.

12 days is going to feel like a long time but is a mere fraction of the duration of the burden of mental health issues. 🔐⛓️

We would be so grateful for any sponsorship for my challenge. 👇🏼

Thank you and take care of each other 👊🏼

It’s arrived!

No backing out now!!! Today I received and unboxed my medicine ball, chain and handcuff (including keys!) 😱😃 Just need to get myself over to the US now where I will start the challenge on Monday 13 May and complete it on Friday 24 May. Please show your support. I am grateful to those that have got me to 10% of my target already. Thank you🙏🏼🙏🏼

Thank you to my Sponsors

£228

Fveys Cash Donations

🇦🇺🇨🇦🇬🇧🇺🇸🇳🇿 cash donations. 🙏🏼

£159

@ptwithtc (tom Collins)

You are a Top Tier Human, doing this for a Top Tier Charity!

£102.50

Victoria Crowder

£101

Oliver Ford

Keep fighting my friend.

£101

Paul Mc

Superb Matt, be well !

£61.50

Chris Coton

£52.50

Jason Weddle (us Navy)

Nice to meet an exceptional friend and ally today Matthew!

£51.25

David Sandy

Matt - Fabulous effort, very proud - BZ and beers on my in London very soon.

£51.25

Neil Poulton

£51.25

Deborah Cheverton

£51.25

Simon Corke

Well done Matt good effort..

£51.25

Paul Livingston

Amazing effort Matt

£51.25

Andrew Hossack

£51.25

Jonathan

£51.25

Alexander Cusic

£51.25

Ian Cameron-mowat

Go for it, Matt! And once the thing's off your wrist, you'll be able to shave!

£51.25

Alfie Brand

👍

£51.25

Victoria Bendall

Hat off to you sir for raising awareness for such a worthy cause! Keep fighting almost there 💪

£51.25

Patty

Sorry it’s taken me so long to donate! Hope this helps ☺️

£51.25

Rob Cooper

Hope you found the key again today!!

£50

Jim H

Well done Gumbo!

£48.18

Team New Zealand 🇳🇿

Team NZ whip round.

£31

Nic George

Amazing effort Matt. Keep up the good work.

£30.75

David Marshall

£30.75

Thomas Reed

Great effort Matt!

£30.75

Simon H

Well done Matthew!

£30.75

Ben Short

Good luck buddy, vaseline will be your best friend for 12 days

£30.75

Rob Pedre

Don’t lose the keys!

£30

Team Malta And Team Tn61!!!

Effort and money for a very worthwhile cause. It's tough but keep going!!!!

£25.63

Matt Clarke

Strong work for an excellent cause Matt. Plus, you need the extra phys! ;)

£25

Geoff Mullis

£25

Martin Lock

Great work Matt for great causes. Well done.

£21

Simon Dean

Good luck Matt, well done in raising the profile of this charity's work.

£21

Stuart Blanchflower

Great causes, good luck mate

£20.50

Jack Gillum

£20.50

Sally & Gary Howard

Good luck bro xxx

£20.50

James R

£20.50

Jamie Mcdonald

Medicine balls, women, Spitfires, determination, great effort, great cause.... x

£20.50

Fi Haynes

BZ Matt

£20.50

Jason Hooper

Go Timmy, well done mate. Good luck in your challenge all the best, Gypo.

£20.50

Besh

£20.50

Tom Foote

£20.50

Fiona Powley

Way to go Matt, so proud of you for taking up this challenge, it’s such an excellent way to highlight Mental Heath issues. Super Proud :)

£20.50

Andy Rea

Great work. P

£20.50

Jamie Irwin

£20.50

Ben Lukowski

Keep going buddy!

£20.50

Alex Stanger

Strong brother, strong

£20.50

Gary M

£20.50

Whitney Loring

£20.50

Polly Scully

Good luck Med-Ball-Matt! Awesome cause. Polly

£20.50

Chris Crowder

Looking forward to the updates Matt. What a great way to support the cause. Best of luck 👍

£20.50

Danelle Ballard

£20.50

Benjamin Vincent

£20.50

Nicky Bell

Congratulations Matt from the UK team in NGA Washington and thank you for raising money for such an important cause!!

£20.50

Deirdre

£20.50

Carleen

Amazing challenge. Amazing cause. Amazing man xx

£20.50

Alan

£20

Chris Worssam

£20

Mark Newton

£20

Ginny & Graham R X

Great cause - well done x

£20

Si Briggs

£20

Joe Long

Awesome effort Matt - good luck!

£20

Alastair Thompson

£20

The Hawkeye

You will always be my Keith.

£20

David Allen

Go Timmey!

£20

Jenna Kathleen

Proud of you xx

£20

Natasha

£20

Joe Fossey

A fabulous cause and such commitment - bravo 👏

£20

Simon L

Excellent cause Matt. Good luck!

£20

Tinners

Strong effort!

£20

Laura Canning

What a great challenge! You’ll smash it Matt

£20

David Bennett

Great effort Matt!

£16.50

K Musick

£16.50

Kitzy Laprade

£16.50

Team Canada

£15

Bradley Mallett

Stay strong my brother!

£10.25

James Poole

An excellent cause and it will also hopefully do something about making those noodle arms a little more defined after a week 😉!

£10.25

Mark Ellis-mckenzie

Good effort mate for a great cause, you got this 💪🏻

£10.25

Hannah Bolland

Well done, Matt. Fantastic challenge for a great cause. Good luck!

£10.25

Edward Dodwell

Go med ball matt!

£10

Jonny ‘medicine’ Ball

Well done brother. You will know that I have accessed the support of Op Courage to help heal a mental health injury. What you are doing, will help others. That’s all we can ask of ourselves.

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