The Bogeymen, a team of four 18-year-old best friends and A-Level students from Bangor in Northern Ireland, aced Macmillan’s Longest Day Golf Challenge last year. Despite being the youngest team in the competition, they secured second place on the fundraising leader board by raising an awesome £18,296. This was all the more impressive given that 1,402 teams from across the UK took part in the competition.
The team, comprising Ben Law, Daniel Irvine and cousins Jack and Callum Duncan, wanted to support Macmillan after seeing the support that Macmillan had given to their loved ones with cancer. The sporty bunch, who met while playing for Bangor Hockey Club, decided that the Longest Day would be the perfect way to do it. The mammoth event involves playing four rounds of golf in a single day, so it’s not for the faint hearted!
"We all had our separate experiences of cancer within our families, so it was nice to come together for this shared experience," said Callum. "It was a really good chance for us to process everything together as well as raising a bit of money for a very good cause."
"Golf is one of our main passions, so the Longest Day gave us a chance to raise awareness and money through doing something we loved," added Jack.
Rather than playing all four rounds of golf at the same club, the tee-riffic team chose to mix things up by completing the challenge over four different courses. This was no mean feat as they began their gruelling day at 4am and finished 17 hours (and 72 holes!) later.
"We are all members of different clubs, so we thought, 'Why not play at them all?'" explained Daniel. "It made it more interesting and stopped us from getting on each other’s nerves!"
"The clubs were all brilliant – they really got behind us and posted about our challenge on their social channels – as did we," said Jack. "Social media played a big part in bringing the donations in."
Their phones kept pinging throughout the day as their fundraising total kept rising. This motivated The Bogeymen to keep their golfing marathon going strong.
"As we finished on the final green, it was a lovely scene," said Callum. "We were looking out over the sea, the sun was setting, and there was a huge group of family, friends, and club members there to cheer us on. It was quite emotional. We felt so proud to know that the money we had raised would help more families like ours to receive the support they need from Macmillan."
And what was the first thing they all did when they finished their final round? "Sleep" they all said in unison.
Find out more about the Thanks to You Awards.