News

Our very own Gary Boyd, who works as a Duty Officer at the Ibrox Community Complex, has taken on a massive challenge for the Foundation this season, pledging to run a mile for every goal scored across the entire Scottish Premiership!

Gary’s challenge kicks off this week with the start of the season, and he could have to run 650 miles or more throughout the challenge based on the number of goals scored in recent years.

He commented, “I’m nervous, it’s a lot, but I definitely feel like its achievable, especially with the backing of the charity and running for the charity. It’s going to motivate me to do it.

“When people sponsor me, I will have no choice but to run it, and I’m excited to get it done.”

Gary plans to try and run the miles as much as possible the week the goals are scored, and hopes other staff at the club and Foundation, friends and family and maybe even some well-known faces will join him on some of his runs.  Plus, he has issued an open invitation to any supporters who want to join him on the challenge.

“Anyone who wants to support me can reach out to me, I’m on X, and come down to Ibrox and do a couple of miles with me! I’ll also be doing the Great Scottish Run, so that’s another opportunity to get on board, and come and run the 10K with me.  Obviously, you can also sponsor me and share details about my challenge with others.

“I’m getting staff on board too, getting them to do the odd mile with me. It doesn’t just benefit me, it will help them as well. There are a lot of mental positives with running and hopefully the more active I get, it might encourage somebody else to get running too.”

Gary’s motivation for the challenge was two-fold, as he wanted to improve his fitness and up his activity levels, at the same time as supporting the Foundation.

“Running is something that keeps me mentally on track. I enjoy it and I thought, why not do something I enjoy and raise money for a good cause at the same time?”

Gary has seen first-hand the difference the Foundation makes to people’s lives via his job at the Ibrox Community Complex, where many of the Foundation’s 20 plus community programmes are delivered, offering help with health and wellbeing, education and employability and inclusion.

“I work full-time with the Rangers Charity Foundation and I see the help it offers people. Part of the reason why I opened the challenge up to goals from the full premiership (and not just Rangers goals) is because not everyone who comes to our programmes is a Rangers supporter and I wanted to reach out to everyone we help at the Rangers Charity Foundation.”

You can follow Gary’s challenge and his mile tally via the Foundation’s social media pages here – FACEBOOK, INSTRAGRAM, X – or follow Gary’s own X page HERE. He’ll be posting about his runs regularly and sharing his fundraising page which you can view HERE.

“I’ve got Strava downloaded!” he added, “And I’ve got a playlist with 700 songs. If anyone’s got any recommendations, send them in and we’ll get them downloaded!”