Going through the pain barrier in memory of dad

James Brown who put himself through the Tough Mudder challenge in memory of his father. (s)

AN ARCHITECTURE student proved to be a Tough Mudder when he tackled a gruelling charity challenge in memory of his Droitwich dad.

Burning hay bales and freezing swamps were no match for James Brown who put himself to the test in the Tough Mudder challenge – a 12 mile course interspersed with 28 gruelling obstacles.

The 25-year-old teamed up with five friends for the event and the devoted son raised £700 for St Richard's Hospice who cared for his dad Graham before he died of cancer last year, aged 67.

Graham himself was a keen marathon before becoming ill and lived on his canal boat and motor boats in the Spa for the past five years.

James, who lives in Somerset with his girlfriend Emma, said: "The Tough Mudder event was incredible. Certainly, the most difficult physical challenge of my life, but also the most exhilarating.

"The whole day was underpinned with the ethos of championing team work and camaraderie; supporting each other to get through the challenges and overcome fears and struggles together.

"It took a lot of pain, sweat and jelly babies to keep us going, but in just over three hours we successfully conquered the 12 miles and 28 obstacles which ranged from challenging to hellish," he added.

Among the tortuous obstacles James had to tackle were to crawl under barbed wire face down through nettles, swimming through a shipping container filled with ice cubes, getting through a mile-long, shoulder deep bog and crawling under a trellis

of cables charged with 10,000 volt shocks.

But despite the gruelling effort, James said it was an honour to run and raise cash in memory of his father.

"Dad had great support from talking to St Richard’s staff and other people with similar conditions," he said

"The £700 I raised is going to an incredibly worthy cause at St Richard’s. I've seen the results of their hard work first hand -

and I know that every donation makes an active and notable impact to the people they support."

St Richard’s director of fund-raising Tricia Cavell said: "Wow, James really put himself through a tough challenge to raise

funds. We are full of admiration and very grateful for all the money he raised in memory of his father."

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