PICTURES: Hailsham Boxing Club walks 100 miles in 'extreme heat' for mental health

Hailsham Boxing Club, run by Samuel Buchanan, took on the challenge of walking 100 miles with no sleep to raise money and awareness for Head Up, a men’s armed forced mental health charity.

The idea came about when Samuel joined forced with his ex-army friend Dan Birrd.

He said: “Dan Birrd approached me and said he had this idea and asked if I would like to join them, so collectively we built a team of mixed abilities. It was a huge undertaking as we realised right from the start.

"As we know mental health is a big problem at the moment and this charity was best suited for the challenge, we wanted to help them achieve their goal.”

The founder of Head Up is currently running a 5,000-mile challenge – 191 marathons around the UK coastline in 218 days.

The group of 13 faced the route from Winchester to Eastbourne in temperatures that reached 34 degrees. They set off at 7am on August 11 and only two people finished on August 13 at 12pm – James Woodroofe and Sam Debonnaire.

Samuel said: “The temperatures we endured were extreme. There weren’t many water points on the journey and they were widely spread over a vast area.

“Luckily we had family and friends who met us at different check points throughout the challenge with food and water – they are true heroes.

"It was a massive undertaking and in completing the challenge collectively we’ve raised around £5,000 so far.”

Samuel says the next challenge on the horizon is to climb two mountains in Scotland and one in the Lake District for foodbanks in Hailsham.

Head Up website

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