When Jonny Sutton and his dad Geoff, plus Jonny’s friend Bryan Hughes, sat down to their respective dinners on Sunday evening they had very sore feet and legs but shrugged off the pain because they had just raised a considerable sum of money to help a very worthwhile cause.
 
JanRUNary was an endurance challenge set up by Jonny and Bryan to raise funds for a school named Roko 20 Academy in Murang'a, Kenya, where Jonny volunteered for three months in 2018 and three weeks when he went back a year later – and would have spent yet more time in 2020 but for the pandemic.
 
“I went to Murang’a because I had a friend who had seen me coaching football and told me that I should gain more experience by working abroad,” he told us, “and it was almost by chance that I ended up there – but during that first visit, I fell in love with the place and have since revisited once and become a board member - and I am planning further visits and looking to set up links with Pembrokeshire schools.
 
“I knew from a family friend that the children were without basic sports equipment and clothing and so prior to leaving the UK I set up an appeal for kit from friends, family and local sports clubs.
 
“We were overwhelmed by the generosity of clubs and individuals but it soon became evident that getting so much stuff out there was going to be a huge logistical problem because we had almost a container full of some great stuff.
 
“But I was lucky that Charlie Watts, a well-known Neyland character, managed to organise transport to RAF St Athan and then another old friend, Ian Wornham, sorted out a free lift for everything with The RAF to Nairobi. Once in Nairobi, we travelled from Murang’a to Nairobi to collect and bring back to the school. It was amazing to see the joy on the school childrens face when they saw their new goalposts, balls, shirts etc!
 
“This challenge started out when I was having a chat with Bryan and we came up with the idea, which was simply to run, walk or cycle every day in January, starting with one mile on the first day and increasing by a mile a day to the 16^th days – and then decreasing the distance by a mile every day down to the 31^st  - by which time we would have completed 256 miles in a month.
 
“The fact that everyone had three different means of completing the challenge encouraged others to get on board. Neyland RFC exiles Chris Banner, Ieuan Davies, plus his wife Kim, my best mate Andrew ‘Moley’ Cole and his niece Sophie, another Neylander in Matthew ‘Mossup’ Barker and Roxanne Kehoe from Haverfordwest all completed the challenge. Three others were keen to be involved but sadly Tom Richards, Justin ‘Skinny’ Harding and Kayleigh Thomas had to withdraw midway due to work commitments and injury.
 
“I was most proud of my dad Geoff, who at 68 felt that running wasn’t for him – so he walked every single mile each day!”
 
“It consisted of seven consecutive half marathons, 21 consecutive 10k+ runs and a total of 256 miles completed in wind, rain, hail, ice and even snow!”
 
“We had hoped to raise £1,000 between us but because of the generosity of Pembrokeshire People, especially sports lovers, we are already over the £2,500 mark and still have time if anyone wants to donate on our web page, which is:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/janrunary?qid=63c1a41fc61f7f1ee8e7f715612c6012
 
“Finally, we would like to give a huge thank you to local companies who sponsored the event - The Green Shed (Scott Gregory), Gellimor and Tyn y Coed (Colin Picton) , R and M Electrical (Andrew Chewy Hewett), Gardinia Windows (Dave Morris), Roscoe Tree Services (Ben Roscoe), RSD Recruitment (Chris Banner), Manillas (Phil and Anna Busby) and The Alumchine (Steffi Campbell).”