The challenge will involve the women walking 100km in under 48 hours.
Organiser of the fundraiser, Cathy O’Neale, asked around to see if any other women would be interested in joining her to take on the 100km challenge.
Leila Campbell, Rebecca Nevill and Lisa Milburn all stuck their hands up to be a part of the event.
“It’s for a good cause but it’s also just a wonderful thing to add to the bucket list and a fantastic way to get to know three other people that you may not have necessarily connected with socially,” Ms O’Neale said.
The four women have appropriately titled their team The Mothership.
Prior to committing to the fundraiser, they were all mutual acquaintances but through the course of the challenge, they have developed a strong bond with one another.
The group commenced training around May of last year.
“The event was actually supposed to happen in October 2021, but then didn’t end up going ahead because of COVID,” Ms O’ Neale said.
The team has used the postponement to its advantage by carrying on with its training.
Ms O’Neale said although they tried to train together, it could be difficult trying to schedule the time in with one another.
“Being parents has certainly prevented us from being as available to train with each other as much as we would have liked to.”
“As a mum, you tend to put your children’s needs and your family’s needs first. This like any sport takes up a lot of time and it means that you have to have a good amount of support from your family.”
Ms O’Neale has never completed a hike like this before.
“Two of us are lucky enough to have been road crew for family members who did the challenge previously so we kind of have an idea of what to expect, but for the other two, it is going to be a completely new experience for them.”
“I’m a little bit nervous but we’ve had some really good support.”
“Even just recently we were given support by Echuca Podiatry who gave a talk to help guide us through the blisters, aches and pains that we may get in our feet.”
The longest walk that the group has done together so far is 40km in eight hours.
“We’ve been given 48 hours but we’re hoping to get it done in 21.”
“At the end of the day, we’ll just be happy if all four of us get over the line. That is our main goal.”
During the walk, The Mothership team has chosen not to sleep.
“We’re choosing not to sleep because apparently if you sleep, it’s much harder to get back up.”
“We take a support crew with us and we’ve got checkpoints where they can meet us at where we can rest, have some food, change our clothing and shoes, get some nutrients and grab some water.”
The checkpoints will be positioned roughly every 10km and there are six checkpoints in total.
The Mothership team has already surpassedits $2000 donation target.
“I ran a couple of soup days at St Mary’s which was really fantastic to have them on board, they put some money towards the fundraiser and Moama Bakery donated the bread for that day.”
“Echuca Worklocker has also kindly sponsored us and put our logo all over our walking shirts.”
The trail walk will be completed over the Dandenong Ranges from the Lysterfield area to Olinda, incorporating the Thousand Steps.
The team did its first trial run up the Dandenong Ranges this weekend to get used to the inclines.
“There’s not many hills in Echuca, we’ve found some trails around through the bush and up and down but none of the hills that we’ve needed to do.”
Ms O’Neale is thrilled to be taking on the challenge with her fellow teammates.
“It was just four women that came together by pot luck.”
“They’re amazing people.”
The team is hoping to do a local bush walk in the future as an extension of its Oxfam fundraiser.
You can donate to the challenge by following this link https://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/t/the-mothership
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