Sydney, 27th September: He’s run across the Sahara Desert and climbed 4 of the 7 Summits and now Crazy Scottish expat adventurer Mick Campbell is set to cycle 800km in 36 hours… all in the name of charity.

When 54 year-old Mick Campbell decides to take himself out of his comfort zone, he really decides to take himself out of him comfort zone. This Saturday will see him embark on a gruelling 36 hour, 800km cycling challenge along Sydney’s M7 bike path. To put this challenge in perspective, it’s the equivalent of cycling from Sydney to the Gold Coast. Mick’s mission is to support Hands Across the Water, which raises money for disadvantaged children and their communities in Thailand.

“For me, it’s an opportunity to not only help with the fundraising, but to take myself out of my comfort zone again. I haven’t done that for a while” – Mick Campbell

Mick, who has spent twenty years as a Chief Information Officer across various companies, thrives on adventures. Having instigated the Krazy Kosci Klimb, which involves empowering young adults with cerebral palsy to climb Mt Kosciuszko, as well as completing the Race Across America and 9 Ironmans, Mick has the steely determination necessary for success.

“When I was doing the Race Across America I had some pretty severe hallucinations. I was cycling past the graveyards in Gettysburg, PA and I kept seeing the gravestones as a part of a giant chess board where they were playing chess and exploding into each other. Additionally, when I was cycling through Illinois, I was imagining all the post-boxes as children who kept running out into the middle of the road in front of me and I had to keep avoiding them by swerving out to the middle of the road… and there are a lot of post-boxes in Illinios.”

His next challenge, to support Hands Across the Water, will be similarly tough. “It’s not necessarily safe. When you are racing for that amount of time you go through peaks and troughs. You can sometimes feel a bit sleepy. Then there’s the fact that the M7 bike path is a little bit hilly…” Mick says.

This positive attitude is typical of Mick. “When you’re in the middle of one of these adventures, I often have 2 voices in my head – the optimistic voice chants, ‘keep pushing, you can do this’, whilst the voice of doom and gloom keeps interrupting with, 'take a seat, what they hell are you doing this for?’ But “Beware the Chair!” and remain optimistic overall; and if you bring that approach to whatever you do, then things generally go your way”.

“If you have good self-belief, if you apply and focus yourself, and you understand and are motivated by why you are doing it then you can get through most adventures,” Mick says.

End.