Hong Kong Football Club player John McCormick-Houston plans to match his club’s staggering 869km charity campaign target on his own.
The 32-year-old Englishman of Celtic descent, who plays hooker for the men’s rugby senior team, cited his comparatively “privileged” Hong Kong life as the main reason for taking on this month’s ‘HKFC Rugby to Hanoi’ challenge.
Initiated by the mini rugby section last year, club members are partnering up with Laureus Sport for Good in helping to raise funds for the Po Leung Kuk charity organisation in Hong Kong and ChildFund Rugby in Hanoi.
As of Tuesday, the club’s rugby section had amassed more than HK$170,000, while McCormick-Houston – known as “Johnnie Mac” in rugby circles – has raised about HK$13,000, having already run or biked more than 500km and reached 8,000m in total elevation.
“We were at the Football Club the other day with our families looking out at the facilities and everything at our disposal. It’s quite often easy to take that for granted and it’s a far cry from the rusty rugby posts and dusty pitches of some of the places that I’ve played at and that these charities have worked at. It’s really important not to lose sight of how privileged we are in Hong Kong,” said the former University of Leeds, USM Morlaas, Old Colfeians and Richmond player.
“The U9s, U11s and younger kids are really mucking in as well to bump up the numbers. It really struck a chord with me when hearing about it,” said McCormick-Houston, an equity derivatives broker for ICAP.
McCormick-Houston recalled being on a regular bike ride a week before the campaign started and thought, “You know what? To make it a real challenge, I’m going to try to cover the main distance”.
For the feat itself, McCormick-Houston has never embarked on something quite so long but is already well ahead of schedule – by more than 70kms – much to the surprise of his teammates.
“As a front-rower pushing 100 kilos, long distance isn’t really my forte. But I’m pretty determined when I put my mind to stuff. [Two weeks] in and I’m not doing too badly,” he said, adding that “when my bum gets sore from cycling, I switch to running, and when my knees get sore from running, I switch to cycling”.
“Hopefully, the crazy side of it can help with the donations. I’ve still got to get after a few guys at work to make sure they put their money where their mouth is!”