Breaking the cycle

Through scorching heat and a thunderstorm, Danny Builth-Snoad cycled for 21 hours and raised thousands of dollars for the UTS Humanitarian Scholarship in the process. 

Danny Builth-Snoad, Head of IT Strategic Portfolio Alignment and Optimisation, was scrolling through the staff newsletter in late 2022 when he saw a notice about the UTS Humanitarian Scholarship. Inspired by the Scholarship’s mission to provide support to students who have sought asylum in Australia, Danny got to work planning his own fundraising effort. 

Connecting with family, friends and colleagues over a shared motivation to improve equity, Danny pledged to undertake an epic cycle throughout Sydney and towards the Central Coast. A live feed updated his supporters during challenging weather conditions, technical failures and even getting lost in the middle of the night (thanks to a freak summer storm). Danny covered 440 kilometres – nearly as far as driving from Sydney to the NSW Snowy Mountains – and raised over $6,500 to better the lives of students.  

Danny shares his story and more about opportunities for staff to get involved in giving back.

Humble beginnings 

Danny’s journey started after learning about fundraising and giving opportunities for UTS staff. 

“I’m a very firm believer in equity and having access to education. I think being part of the university, everyone here has a shared understanding of the value of education. The reality is, we're incredibly lucky in that almost everybody here has access to good education. So I asked, what can I do? I can donate personally, but what could I do to multiply that effort?”  

Having experience in endurance riding, Danny decided on a cycle, with the aim of covering 500 kilometres from his home on the North Shore, visiting Mangrove Mountain, Wisemans Ferry, Richmond, and Narellan in Sydney’s southwest before returning.  

To prepare, Danny didn’t focus as much on the physical – with the gift of hindsight he admits this wasn’t his finest decision – instead, directing his efforts towards fundraising and generating interest for his big commitment.

“It's almost like a contract that you enter in to with the donors. You can just say, ‘please donate some money and this is a good cause’, but it won't be very effective. You also have to put something big on the table.” 

Rally, ride and recovery 

In the blink of an eye, it was game day. But things didn’t exactly go off without a hitch. Danny remembers the support he had throughout the first part of the journey.  

“I had two friends ride with me for the first 220 kilometres, and at that point they peeled off and I continued solo. Normally, you'd expect to get through a few hundred kilometres before the pain starts kicking in. But at about 60 kms, I was already starting to get over it. At about 200 kilometres, my friends tried to convince me to stop because they thought I was toasted.”  

Danny was then joined by another cyclist he connected with through social media who completed a further 120 kilometres alongside him. 

“That was the first time we had met so it was great to see the support come from someone I didn’t even know. He even threw in a great donation afterwards.” 

Despite plenty of fuel - Danny carried two large bags filled with snacks and equipment to keep him going during his ride - factors like high temperatures began to wear on him earlier than anticipated.  

Digging deep to get it done 

Many endurance rides tend to follow a similar pattern, explains Danny, beginning with early enthusiasm, the valley of despair in the middle, followed by a final rally close to the finish. 

“In this particular ride, I thought I was through that valley after 350 kilometres in, but then ended up with a situation at 1am. There had been a thunderstorm going for about three hours at that point and then I got completely lost. It was going to take at least another three hours to get home and I’d been riding in the dark and rain for six hours at that point. I thought that was what would break me, and as it turns out it did.” 

Danny was hungry, lost and exhausted, seeking refuge in a McDonalds to refuel with a hot chocolate and some fries. 

“I was contemplating sleeping out there for a few hours so I could finish the ride in the morning, but after stopping moving the shakes set in and that was the end of me. There's a tracker that I was using, so everybody could follow, but it stopped working. Suddenly, everyone was ringing my wife to ask what was happening. In the end she had to come and rescue me when I decided to call it quits. I guess you can say there’s a sense of unfinished business.

"Once you've done something like this, it becomes your new benchmark of what you can endure. I use that from a work and personal perspective, whenever there's something I’m facing that might be tough or difficult.” 

In the end, Danny rode 440 kilometres over almost 21 hours. During the cycle, donations crept past the $5,000 mark and continued to climb. 

Danny's ride stats.

What’s next?  

Danny says he has no firm plans for another long ride in the immediate future, but who knows what the future may hold.

And Danny’s advice? 

“Three things: just do it, don't overthink it, and go big. At the end of the day, it's better to shoot high than to have not tried at all." 

Donations for Danny's ride remain open until Friday 14th April 2023. 

Byline: Zoe Cwojdzinski and  Lilli Hayes