Martin Parnell

Professional Speaker and Author in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada

Martin Parnell

Professional Speaker and Author in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada

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I've always played a variety of sports, but it wasn’t until my late 40's that I put on my first pair of running shoes. My first official race was the Sudbury 5km “Sun Run” in April 2003, and since then I have completed numerous races including marathons, ultra marathons and Ironman events.

In 2005, I completed a four-month cycling expedition from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa. During the trip I had the chance to experience the power of sport and its effect on the lives of children across the African continent. In 2010 I ran 250 marathons and raised $320,000 for Right To Play. This was the beginning of my "Quests for Kids" initiative, to complete 10 Quests in 5 years, raise $1m and help 20,000 children. The quests included four Guinness World Records (GWR) for the longest games of Netball, Lacrosse, Soccer and biggest game of Hockey; Running 100kms around the Island of Rarotonga; Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 21 hours, Running 1,000km around the South West Coast Path of England and attempting 10 GWR's at 10 Universities across Canada.

At the end of 2014, the 10 Quests were completed and over $1.3m was raised giving the gift of hope to over 27,000 of the World's most disadvantaged children.