A Year of Pain to Save Lives

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(LtoR) Steve Breslin and Chris Hicks

Two Surrey lads say their New Year resolution will bring them personal pain for twelve months as they raise money to help the Surrey Air Ambulance save lives.

25 year-old Steve Breslin from Clapham in London and 31 year-old Chris Hicks from Ellison Way, Tongham near Guildford are planning on completing an extreme set of personal challenges - one a month over the next year. The challenges will see their personal fitness put to the test and they say often 'taken to the limit.'

The pair who work together at KBR in Leatherhead as 'Mechanical Engineers' have a grueling schedule that they say would make even Bear Grylls' eyes water at the prospect. Included in the 'Year of Pain' is the inaugural Brighton Marathon in April and an 'Iron Man Challenge' in August, that will see the lads swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and run 26.2 miles - this particular challenge is expected to take the pair between 12-14 hours to complete.

Steve Breslin said: "We are both fit in our own way, Chris has already completed three marathons and plays football, I'm into my cycling and have a 34 mile round trip to work every day, so we're both in relatively good shape. However the next 12 months are going to prove very tough. I'm not a long distant runner so I've got a personal challenge ahead of me. There are some real fitness tests coming up and we're going to use the next few weeks to get ourselves as ready as we can be."

Another of the challenges that the pair, who have worked together for 18months, will take part in is the cross channel swim from Dover.

Chris Hicks said: "We're both pretty determined to do this, both as a pair but as individuals too. I'm not sure how much of it we can complete together - but as a pair we want to raise as much for the air ambulance as we possibly can. Our target is about £10,000 (ten thousand pounds). This certainly wasn't a spur of the moment thing. We've wanted to do this for sometime now - to test ourselves. The reason we chose the air ambulance is that I recently heard a radio advert for the charity that explained a bit about what it did and I was totally shocked it got almost all its funds from the public. This fund raising for the Surrey Air Ambulance is a little like paying for car insurance, you really never know if you'll need it but it's the right thing to do."

Julie Jenkinson, Surrey County Fundraiser said: "The air ambulance crew are always impressed by supporters' fundraising efforts, whether it's a sponsored walk, climb or run. However, when these two guys came to the base to explain their year of grueling challenges, were left in total awe by their personal effort and amazing compassion for the work that goes on here. Chris and Steve are clearly inspirational guys who are driven to succeed and they're inspired by the life-saving work that our HEMS crew carries out. It is a huge amount of effort but with such a fantastic cause in mind - the pair are clearly great role models - we're grateful for their support."

Chris and Steve's schedule of events booked in so far include

31^st January 2010 - The Riot Runner - A 7 mile cross country run

20^th February 2010 - Big Cow Dualathlon - 4.5km run, 16km cycle, 4.5km run

21^st March 2010 - Fleet Half Marathon - 13.1 mile run

18^th April 2010 - Brighton Marathon - 26.2 mile run

16^th May 2010 - Merchant Taylor's School Triathlon - 1500 metre swim, 40km cycle, 10km run

27 June 2010 - Chiltern Challenge - 100 mile cycle

10^th July 2010 - Cross Channel Swim - 2 x 1 hour swim in channel as part of relay

1^st August 2010 - 2.4 km swim, 26.2 mile run and 112 mile cycle

September TBC

October TBC

November TBC