Bro-mancing’ the Stone - Friends tackle their bucket list

by Sarah Barr

Staff Writer

Photos - submitted

Call it a Christmas miracle, even if the idea was conceived at Christmastime, but not completed.

Two friends have a casual conversation about crisscrossing the world and wind up raising thousands upon thousands of dollars to beat pediatric cancer. They also set a Guinness World Record while they were at it.

Buckle up for this bucket list trip.

Tuchmann and Doshi were invited to sit in the cockpit before their flight from Singapore to Sydney.

Manoj Doshi of Wethersfield and Mark Tuchmann, previously of Rocky Hill and now a part-time resident of Cromwell (he splits his time between TPC River Highlands and Hull, Mass.), are best buddies. Not because they are life-long friends, although 31 years could be considered a lifetime. It’s because their wives, Megan Doll-Tuchmann and Eileen Farrelly, are life-long friends.

“Our wives grew up together. So, when I started dating my wife, Manoj was dating his wife. We witnessed the same abuse of dating a Wethersfield girl,” Tuchmann said with dry humor.

“Both of our wives were in the fourth grade together [at Highcrest School] and together at Wethersfield High School,” Doshi added.

Another connect the dots moment is that both men are, or are about to, turn 60.

“The old man turned before me,” Tuchmann joked.

Doshi reached that milestone in February. Tuchmann will catch up in August. The number means nothing to them.

Mark Tuchmann, left, and Manoj Doshi dressed the part of globetrotters. The crew celebrated Doshi’s birthday as they prepared to fly from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles.

“It’s just another year,” Doshi said. “We’re both healthy. Both working.”

When the two men are not globetrotting, Tuchman works at Acrisure and Doshi at Prudential, for which he commutes to New Jersey. But if you think that’s a haul, wait until you hear what he and his wingman decided to do, as well as how they did it and why.

Tuchmann said the “crazy idea” stemmed from holiday chit-chat about “going around the world and how our wives didn’t want to do that and how we should do that.”

What they didn’t know was how quickly the dream trip would turn into a reality – and why.

Tuchmann’s daughter is a student at Penn State and part of THON, the world’s largest student-run philanthropic organization. It conducts year-round efforts raising money to combat childhood cancer culminating each February with a 46-hour no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon.

One hundred percent of the profits go to the Four Diamonds Fund to emotionally and financially support families by covering medical bills and funding research.

“Her sorority had to raise money and they were only half way there,” Tuchmann said of the purpose to accompany the joy of traveling with his best friend.

The added twist was the world record. No one had ever done two global circumnavigations on commercial flights only as one continuous journey in seven days.

“I sent Manoj a text and said I’m doing this. Thought he’d say no,” Tuchmann recalled.

He got a text back. His friend was all in.

Documenting their trip with iconic backgrounds. Tuchmann and Doshi are at Mount Fuji in Japan.

“It came together very quickly,” Doshi added. “We researched to go around the world twice.”

Eastbound, they traveled from JFK airport in New York City to Dubai, Singapore and Sydney, Australia, and then Los Angeles to get back to New York. Then they went westbound from JFK to Minneapolis before heading to Tokyo, Japan, then back to Dubai and New York.

“We did both east and west trips in under seven days. We spent more time on the plane than on the ground,” Doshi joked.

But the dual purpose was no laughing matter after raising life-saving money for children with cancer and completing a male-bonding bucket list for the ages.

In total, the men spent 11 hours in Dubai, 11 in Singapore, 11 in Sydney, and 31 in Tokyo. They had to be creative.

“We thought of an innovative way to see the city,” Doshi said.

“In Dubai, we took a trip to the tallest building in the world. In Japan, we took a bullet train to see Mount Fuji. In Sydney, we did the harbor where the opera house and all the main attractions are.”

Their favorite stop was Sydney.

“It’s gorgeous and warm. The people are very nice and friendly. It’s relaxed,” Doshi said.

“It’s kind of like Seattle and Hawaii. We took a ferry. It was enjoyable,” Tuchmann added.

Tokyo was second favorite for both, followed by Dubai. They visited Singapore during monsoon season so they didn’t see a lot. They got back in time to beat that February blizzard.

But that’s not the true feat in all of this. They raised $82,000 for charity.

Another victory is that their excursion – a self-described “excuse to spend a lot of money to go around the world to do a bucket list item” – will appear in the Guinness Book of World Records once they send in all of their documentation.

The monetary and record-setting wins on paper pale in comparison to what they feel in their hearts.

“We love each other,” Tuchmann said without hesitation. “We’re like family.”

“We’ve been together for 31 years,” Doshi added, as if finishing his friend’s sentence. “He’s like a brother.”

Without skipping a beat, they said they would do it again. They’re already planning to do more fundraising and increase their bond.

Perhaps the next Christmas miracle will involve penguins and elves. CL RHL WL

For more information about THON and it’s record-breaking $18.8 million raised go to thon.org and the trip that helped make that record possible https://rtw4thekids.netlify.app.