The conclusion of a football season usually gives players and staff a chance to take a break from an intense schedule before fueling up for the next campaign. However, there is no rest for Kit Manager Josh Evans, who is looking ahead to his biggest charity challenge yet.
Evans, alongside his teammates from grassroots team Spartans Football Club, will be pushing their limits in a 100km march across the Cotswolds to raise money and awareness for Children's Hospice South West, which provides care for babies, children and young people living with life-limiting conditions and their whole family.
It's a charity that Evans holds close to his heart, and he knows that keeping it in mind will get him and everyone else through any testing moments.
“I’m doing it for the Children's Hospice South West, which is a hospice at Charlton Farm in Bristol," he said. "It caters for children with life-limiting conditions, terminally ill children, and it offers a safe space for the families and the people that care for them.
“For quite a few years now, we’ve been able to do these sorts of challenges for numerous charities, and we felt like the time was right for the children’s hospice to get a mention and get involved with it, but without the Spartans, I wouldn’t be here. It’s nice to be able to coincide Spartans with Bristol Rovers and do it together.
"We’ve done quite a lot of visits there as a Football Club. It’s always touched home, especially with children. It’s hard to comprehend what they are going through every time we go there. You come home, and it really rides home.
“For you to push your personal limits, it’s nice to have an incentive behind it. There is no bigger incentive than a cause like the children’s hospice. It fuels you along the way, but you know at the end that there is an outcome, which you have helped benefit a very worthy cause.”
The challenge starts at Winchcombe in the Cotswolds, stretching down to Painswick for the halfway mark on the first day. Then, on the second day, they will finish in Bath.
It will be a tough challenge that tests them physically and mentally, but it will not be something that they are not used to. The Spartans regularly set challenges to raise money for charity, donating over £4,000 to Bristol Mind, a mental health charity, as part of their #TackleTheStigma campaign, where they walked from Cheddar to Bristol.
The Spartans have been a massive part of Evans' life since he created the club in 2008, and he knows the challenge will be easier because they are all in it together.
"It’s literally a grassroots football club that I created in 2008 when I was 15," Evans reflected. "It helped me create a stepping stone to becoming a professional kit manager. A lot of my interview when I came here was based around the job roles and stuff that I did at Spartans.
“It helped me gain a lot of transferable skills to be here, where I am now, and I’ve got a lot to thank Spartans for. Lots of players and staff have supported us, and some staff have actually played for us. It’s been nice to get some famous names along the way.
"The whole point of the club being created was to get an escape every Sunday morning and have that camaraderie and brotherhood. We’re all in it together, and we’ll feel that support when we’re aching along the way.”
With less than a month until the challenge gets underway, the Spartans have already raised almost £2,000. Evans has been delighted with the support and emphasised how much it will mean to everyone at the Children's Hospice South West.
“The support so far has been amazing," he said. "We’ve only just begun, but we’re seeing support from across the city with Bristol City donating signed shirts, with Bristol Rovers being so helpful, and you’ve got local grassroots clubs promoting it.
"It’s lovely to feel the love in and around Bristol for the Spartans and the children’s hospice. It means so much to me, but I know for a fact that it will mean a lot more to the families, the children and the people that work at the hospice."
With plenty of miles to cover, training is well underway.
He continued: "I’m trying to put the practise in now with a few others, and I know whatever we do, it’s going to be a challenge. It’s a long way, and I just know that in the back of my head throughout, I’ve got the fact that I’m doing it for such a good cause and that will fuel me along the way.
“I did the same sort of training in October when we did the 5k a day, but we’ve got to push our limits a bit more. We’ve got some routes set out in the next couple of weeks that we’re going to attack to help us get used to the fact that we’re on our feet for over 50k a day. I think mentally, we’ve got to prepare more.”
The challenge has not even started, but ideas are already bubbling for next year. Evans and Spartans always want to support services in the area, with the Kit Manager looking to go even bigger.
"I’ve got a cause in mind that is close to my heart, and I’m sure I’ll explain a little bit later after the challenge, but we’ll go big, and we’ll go hard again.”
