Coaches and members at Fitness Box in Calne have completed a punishing round-the-clock workout to raise more than £1,000 for Julia’s House.
Gym owner Glen Babbage and coaches Adam Roberts and Gaz Peart challenged themselves to the full 24-hour workout, with members invited to join as many CrossFit sessions as they could manage.
Around 50 people took part in the event, which kicked-off at 9.30am on Friday 15 October and ended at 9.30am on Saturday 16 October.
“We had a different ‘hero workout’ every hour,” said Glen, from Melksham. “They’re CrossFit workouts, which are named in honour of US servicemen who have died. We started and finished the 24 hours with the ‘Murph’ workout, which begins with a mile run, followed by 100 pull ups, 200 push ups and 300 squats, then another mile run at the end.”
The team at Fitness Box, which specialises in gymnastics, weight lifting and cardio training, have celebrated the anniversary of the training facility’s opening for the past three years with a charity challenge.
“We always pick a crazy challenge to try and get people excited and raise more money,” said Glen. “We were looking for a local charity to support this year and one of our members told us about Julia’s House and the great work their nurses and carers do for local children and families.
"I think it’s really important to support local causes and I’m really pleased at how much we’ve been able to raise for the charity – we more than doubled our target.
“We had brilliant support from people joining in the challenge, or just bringing us food and drinks to keep us going. It was a tough challenge though – it’s taken me, Gaz and Adam a few days to recover. The hardest part was in the early hours when it was just us three and everyone else had gone to bed. But the last session was a real highlight because we had a big number there for the final push.”
Julia’s House cares for the most seriously ill children in the local community. Last month we launched our Together We Care Appeal in Wiltshire to raise the vital funds needed to keep our service going each year in the county.
Our Fundraiser, Claudia Hickin, said, “We’re hugely thankful to Glen, Adam, Gaz and everyone at Fitness Box for battling through their mega 24 hour-workout to raise money for Julia’s House. We rely on donations to provide our free respite care service across Wiltshire, so their efforts will make a big difference for local families of seriously ill children.”
Make a donation to the Fitness Box 24 hour workout challenge at their Just Giving page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fitnessbox