Last year, a Penrith family spent the lead-up to Christmas at John Hunter Children’s Hospital.
This year, the family’s patriarch Zachary Ryan is giving thanks to the hospital by undertaking a 500km challenge over five days to raise $100,000.
“Last year, we went up to Nelson Bay for a family holiday, and our youngest, who was six-months-old at the time, was having a lot of trouble breathing,” Ryan recounted.
“He got really sick one night and my partner rang the ambulance, and the ambulance took him and my partner to John Hunter Children’s Hospital.
“They did a really good job, but he had a few nights where they were having to put feeding tubes and breathing tubes through his nose and into his stomach and he was constantly on masks and wasn’t able to breastfeed, which had been his only source of food since he’d been born.”
The family were at the hospital until Christmas afternoon, and they couldn’t speak higher of the care they received.
“I remember being in the ordeal, and the whole time I thought, ‘The next time I do something, I want to do something for them’,” Ryan said.
The teacher’s aid at St Dominics College is no stranger to undertaking big feats in the name of charity.
In 2020, he raised awareness for men’s mental health by flipping a 130kg tyre 6.5km around the Nepean River Walk.
“I’ve struggled with mental health, and I’ve always leant into the physical aspect to be an outlet for me, and I was thinking of what I could do for them,” Ryan said.
“I was in a lull with my training, and I was getting a little bit low mentally as well, and I sort of had a flashback to when I did the tyre flip and how I felt doing something for someone else.”’
From December 17-21, Ryan will complete 100km on the Ski Erg in under 10 hours, 100km on the Bike Erg in under five hours, 100km on the Row Erg in under 10 hours, 100km on the Rogue Echo Bike in under five hours, and a 100km run around the Nepean River in under 15 hours.
“I don’t know how I came up with the idea of 100km on every machine, I’m sure I could’ve come up with something easier, but it must’ve been something that I was fixated on,” Ryan said.
“I think as well, at that time it was incomprehensible to be able to do 100km on five different things over five days without the body breaking down, so I think the challenge was picked because it was something I didn’t know if I’d be able to do.”
If you’d like to support John Hunter Children’s Hospital the way they support children in need, you can make a donation at the ‘Worlds First 100km a Day’ GoFundMe page, located at https://www.gofundme.com/f/john-hunters-childrens-hospital.
Ally Hall
Ally Hall joined the Weekender in 2024, and focuses on entertainment and community stories. She's a graduate of the University of South Australia and has previously worked as a Video Journalist with Southern Cross Austereo and as a News Reader with Australian Radio Network.