‘Today, what MATES originally planned as a one-off experiment has turned into a sustainable annual event, which has raised over $780,000 (and counting!) to increase awareness of suicide in the construction industry and employ more field workers to help with the problem over 2014 – 2018 and now 2019. Making the process easier has been our charity’s partnership with the adventure charity challenge provider, Aurora Adventures. As well as the fact Aurora was experienced in running adventures, the company also provided administration and marketing planning to MATES, free of charge. Aurora have taken all of the complexity out of organising an event like this. We’ve successfully been able to give the public an amazing chance to fundraise for us, without needing to invest in new skills in-house.’

Jorgen Gullestrup, CEO – MATES in Construction – Kokoda Challenge 2014-2018 & 2019