Tough Guy 2011.
David McManus & his friend Ben Wilson took on the tough guy challenge in aid of the appeal.
Including Gift Aid they raised just over £800 which is fantastic. This is David & Ben with the presentation cheque.
David has kindly sent us this write up...
One evening in October 2010 while watching DVDs at home, Ben told me about an endurance event up north called Tough Guy Challenge. It was something he always wanted to try so he asked me if I would do it with him.
Being always up for the next challenge I agreed and without thinking we both registered online.
As we had both tackled endurance challenges for charity in the past we decided to do this one for a charity.
We thought about different charities but one stuck in my mind that Ben was unaware of. Once I told him about Hannah's holiday home appeal Ben was immediately taken by it and we agreed this was the one. Ben said, "As soon as I read about Hannah's holiday home appeal, I instantly wanted to do Tough Guy for Hannah's appeal. It's an amazing thing Pam has done for families going through a difficult time, and there's that real sense that we will be helping by doing this to support the appeal".
After sending out sponsor forms to family friends and work colleagues, we soon had pledges for a substantial amount of money. Ben said," As soon as I mentioned at work what I was doing Tough Guy for, I filled two sponsor forms in about two hours. Workmates have been very supportive".
While we were collecting sponsors, some words kept cropping up, "mad", "stupid", "crazy", "why?", "nutters" and a few sceptics that said we would never do it.
Suddenly, it was the 30th Jan, the day of the event. After quite a nervous breakfast at 5am, we set off at 5.30am from our friend Kevin's house in Cowplain as he was kind enough to drive us up to the event.
After a journey of just under 3 hours we arrived. We got there quite early so the mayhem had not yet begun. After Kevin's amazing blagging skills to get us free parking, we both went to register to get our numbers, injury tags, sign the disclaimers and a free Tough Guy mouse mascot, oh and a random rubber duck but we never did find that warm bubble bath!
We eventually started at 11am to the sound of cannon fire and began a challenge that will stay with us forever. They made sure we were cold, wet and covered in mud from the very beginning so we were never comfortable.
We each had our worst moments. For Ben it was "the torture chamber" were he peered into the dark tunnel and could hear screams echoing from inside. He overcame his fears and crawled in and then his screams mingled with the others as he got an electric shock on his backside.
For me the hardest thing was the "death plunge" at this point I was so cold I thought I would never see my man bits again. So the last thing I wanted was to jump into yet more icy water. My manhood was last seen seeking warmth under my neoprene hat.
After 3 hours of icy water up to our necks and a few complete dunks, running through fire, electric shocks in the pitch black, jumping from height into icy water and claustrophobic tunnels it was over.
The sense of achievement was overwhelming; along with the feeling of sheer cold and that your body just wants to shut down for a week. So after the photos we put on some dry clothes and headed home shell shocked and exhausted after what we had just done. It is such an amazing cause so it was worth every ounce of pain.
Anybody want to join us in making a team for 2012 ?!
Till next year then 
Xx
We showed this on our website before the day together with a pretty scary video...
This is David McManus proudly modelling the shirt he'll be wearing on the forthcoming tough-guy 2011. David and his friend Ben Wilson (32) who is at RAF Odiham are raising money for the Appeal. David and Ben have a fundraising page here http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/davidmcmanus.
www.toughguy.co.uk for more info on the tough guy challenge.