Hamish is taking on Warrior Challenge

By Rowan Frazer

Feb 18, 2025

One young Deniliquin community member will be pushing himself to the physical and mental limits, raising awareness and funds for a good cause.

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Sixteen year-old Hamish Baker is preparing for the Walking 4 Warriors 2025 Endurance Challenge Fundraiser.

Walking 4 Warriors is an organisation that promotes physical and mental health to help push people beyond what they perceive as normal limitations, to open up for the potential for physical, mental, emotional growth and development as well as supporting ex-military veterans and first responder groups.

The fundraising endurance challenge encourages participants to keep moving throughout either a three, six, 12 and 24-hour challenge period.

Starting from Dennis Park on Boyne Island in Queensland, participants do this by running, walking or even crawling continuously each hour.

Hamish will be going to Queensland in April to take part.

“As a family we’ve supported the challenge from afar, but this is the first year I’ve been able to physically support and take part,” Hamish said.

“My uncle served in the military and is a co-founder of Walking 4 Warriors, raising awareness and funds for the importance of keeping physically and mentally healthy, particularly for ex-service people who can suffer mental health issues such as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).”

Hamish says he’s confident he can handle the physical requirements of the challenge, but he will continue to train right up until April.

“I’ve been doing 4-5km runs regularly, outside the regular sports training,” he said.

“I’ve never done anything this long before, and it is an endurance challenge, so it will be as much of a mental challenge as it is physical.”

The challenge starts at 6pm on the Friday before Anzac Day, which this year happens to be Good Friday.

All funds raised by Hamish will go straight to Walking 4 Warriors to assist them in directly providing programs and opportunities for the community to support each other.

Anyone can take part in the Walking 4 Warriors 2025 Endurance Challenge, including virtually.

Virtual participants to be tracked by some form of activity monitor.

The in-person participatin fee is $75, or $65 if completing it virtually.

For more information about Walking 4 Warriors, go to https://walking4warriors.org.

To donate to Hamish’s effort, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/Walking4Warriors.

• Anyone requiring crisis support can contact Accessline on 1800 800 944, Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14, BeyondBlue on 1300 224 636 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800. Resources and pathways to help are also available at www.denimentalhealth.org.au.