Whatever you are doing Saturday 20th, cancel it, because whatever it is, is absolutely nothing compared to what Chris Mamo is doing.

The incredibly inspiring Maltese man will be running up and down the City Gate Steps in Valletta for an entire 12 hours – from 8.18am to 8.18pm – to raise money to battle Parkinson’s Disease. Step Up for Charity is a collaboration between Jonathon Azzopardi Frantz and Chris Mamo together with Step Up for Parkinson’s and the Malta Community Chest Fund, and they are putting on this courageous event to show solidarity with every person battling Parkinson’s Disease.

Just to be clear, the man will be running up and down the stairs for half a day, – or about the time it takes to watch the entire Lord Of The Rings trilogy (not the director’s cut) plus one of The Hobbit films.

Chris Mamo is no ordinary man though

Chris spent years serving with the British Army in war-torn battlefields in Kosovo and Iraq. No stranger to a tough situation, Chris began taking on insane challenges to raise awareness on medical conditions after he lost his sister to cancer at the age of 26.

“I had spent a few nights on the sleeping chair next to her bed, and I thought that if we could make it better, we should,” he had said after finishing 20 marathons in 20 days in 2016.

Step Up for Charity aim to raise money to help people living with Parkinson’s Disease

“This year we have teamed up to raise funds to support the ongoing initiative of free specialized movement classes that are offered to people with Parkinson’s Disease and their caregivers that are offered through the organisation Step Up for Parkinson’s. These classes not only help the people with Parkinson’s, but also the people caring for them. Additionally, for the Malta Community Chest Fund who supports individuals and entities on improving the health, quality of life and well-being in their time of need.

Now, he is running up and down the City Steps for 12 straight hours to raise money for the fight against Parkinson’s

He cites his times as soldier as the reason he can handle such tough challenges with relative ease.

“I spent 12 years in the British Army, and we would spend up to three weeks during exercises living rough, moving constantly and not really getting much sleep. During those times, the best part of 24 hours would have passed before realising we hadn’t stopped moving,” Chris told Lovin Malta.

“That builds mental toughness – after the body shuts down physically, that’s the only thing that will get me through these 12 hours.”

However, there was one major difference between his time in the army and his challenge on Saturday: “the only difference with this challenge is this challenge is by choice!”

If you would like to support Chris Mamo and Step Up for Charity you can donate at the event or by SMSing the following numbers:

50618064 – €4.66

50618931 – €6.9

50619231 – €11.65

Step Up for Charity will begin at 8.18am. DJ Pierre Cordina will be playing music throughout the event, and the Junior Dance Company of Malta will perform at 5pm. The event will be closed by the President of Malta announcing the final amount of funds raised by 8.18pm.

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]