John raises money to feed displaced Syrian families by completing an Ironman Challenge

On 14^th August 2016, John O’Brien, our MD and founder swam 1.9km, cycled 90km and ran 21.1km through Dublin, his home city, with over 2,000 other participants to successfully complete the Ironman 70.3 Dublin. John says it was a tough event and on the day there was amazing support from family, friends and spectators which helped spur him on to cross the finish line.

Earlier this year John signed up for the event to raise money to help feed Syrian families displaced by the war in their country.

The on-going violence in Syria has meant that over 450,000 people (at least 4,000 of which are children) have lost their lives in the conflict, as well as around 12.5 million people becoming displaced.

All the money raised by John will make a difference, going directly to charity, as he personally covered the full cost of participating in the event.

“Like many people, I have been moved by the tragic pictures of the plight of the Syrian refugees on television which inspired me to help Sunny Araf, a colleague from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 SME programme, who is raising £2m for his charity GLM to feed families displaced by the war. This was a tough event but one I’m delighted to have trained for and completed, to help Sunny get a little closer to his £2m target. And I would like to thank everyone who has sponsored me, thank you.”

If you have been touched by this crisis or would like to help John raise money for this great cause you can still donate at John’s Justgiving page