Derry man doing ‘75 Hard’ challenge in memory of his dad

Tony’s dad Jeffrey was an alcoholic and he died when he was just 50 on July 16 2020 from septicemia. In June of this year, Tony decided he wanted to do something to commemorate his dads passing while raising awareness of drug and alcohol misuse. The 75 Hard Challenge consists of five steps for 75 days: a healthy died (no cheats, no alcohol); completing two 45 minute workouts a day, one of which is outside; drinking a gallon of water; reading 10 pages of a non-fiction book (self development or entrepreneurial); taking progress pictures. Tony has also added two extra steps - taking cold showers and no social media. If he doesn’t do all the steps in one day, he must start from the start.

As well as raising awareness of alcohol and drug misuse, Tony is also raising funds for HURT - Have Your Tomorrow, a mental health organisation in Derry, who he says helped his family immensely.

Tony said: “The challenge was started by someone called Andy Frisella, he’s a big influencer online. He was in the Navy and in order to get in shape quickly, you had to do these things for 75 days, that’s why he created it and then I edited it. I would usually train around five times a week anyway doing Jujitsu and MMA so I would be quite active and I also read a bit too so I added extra steps because I wanted to make this more challenging for me. I’m on social media all the time and I would have a cold shower or an ice bath maybe once a month and every time I did it I thought it was so hard. That’s why I chose to add those two things.

“I’m doing this to raise awareness of alcohol and drug misuse and for the families of people with addictions too. I started this challenge on June 16 this year. My daddy passed away in July 2020 so it was coming up to his anniversary and I wanted to do something for a lifestyle change and to raise awareness of people like my daddy. He was an alcoholic. It wasn’t the alcoholism that killed him but it might have helped if he wasn’t an alcoholic.

“I don’t want to say that I’m having a really hard time of it because I know there’s people out there who are in a much worse position than I was or than I am now. There’s people out there and you can’t even imagine what they’re going through. I went through that obstacle in my life but I wanted to show that you can use it as motivation.

“I’m not saying I’ll stay off all this when the challenge is over - I’ll still be on social media and still have a drink. I’m not trying to say that we should stop these things because I would just be a hypocrite. I just want to challenge myself, firstly, and secondly, be aware of my lifestyle so I can see what I need to cut out in order to be better and reach my goals. Now that I’m doing this, I have much more time to focus on what I need to focus on instead of scrolling through Tik Tok. I have to read a non-fiction book - the whole point of the challenge is to push yourself - so at the start, I read The Secret. I read that before but every time I read it, it gets me in the right frame of mind. It’s about the law of attraction and things. I read one called Talent is Overrated, which is basically saying that no one is born with talent, it’s all about hard work and I’m now reading The 48 Laws of Power. To be honest, this one’s a bit crazy. It makes you aware of a lot of bad traits people can have.”

Tony is struggling with the challenge but says he knew it would be difficult when he was going into it.

“It’s not called 75 Easy!” he joked. “I think social media is the hardest part for me, though. I still go on Youtube and watch fights, which is educating me, and I still use Whatsapp. I was on social media sites all the time and they were the ones I wanted to cut out. Before I went off social media, I made sure to get phone numbers of all the people I’m close to. If I see people around, like in the gym, and I would like to talk to them, I’ll ask for their number too. You make it work and you can ask around for peoples numbers if you need it. It’s a very old fashioned way of doing it but it’s good to see the perspective of not having everything so accessible. Everyone says social media is a bad place but it’s not really. It’s only bad if you let it be bad. I have an uncle in Canada and I can’t see his life or see what people are doing on their holidays or the things they are achieving in their lives so I miss that. But I’m making it work.

“I’m blown away by how much I’ve raised so far on the fundraiser. I initially set it at £200, then it beat that, I set it to £500 then £700 and now it’s at £1,000. I’m just over £100 away from it now. Everyone’s so supportive. It’s been hard for me to share the fundraiser because I’m off social media but my friends and family are promoting it for me. When it’s over, I’ll post some results online and leave the fundraiser up for about a week after it’s finished too.”

So, what are Tony’s plans for when the challenge ends? “I can’t wait for a warm shower!” he said.

Tony’s fundraiser can be found at gofund.me/f8451dd9