Batting through the pain barrier, a Wigan dad has raised thousands by completing an excruciating sequence of challenges including dragging a 15-tonne barge
A Wigan children’s charity is thousands of pounds better off today after a Wigan dad put himself through the tortures of the damned.
Nigel Brookwell never likes raising money an easy way and his three-part Painathon was no different as he first lugged a 15-tonne barge along the canal from Wigan Pier to his home village of Crooke, then walked barefoot carrying a 35kg sandbag, to Sherrington’s Bar, on Kenyon Road, Swinley, before crawling on his hands and knees to the Boar’s Head pub at Standish.
And the 52-year-old admitted afterwards that it was the middle section of the challenge which proved the hardest, not least because a sliver of broken glass embedded itself in the sole of his foot.
But it was all worthwhile in the end as the cash has been rolling in for Daffodils Dreams which provides essential items and life experiences for vulnerable Wigan children and their families.
Nigel called in at a number of pubs en route to raise the profile of his charitable venture.
Now finally able to put his feet up he said: “It was brutal but it was good that a few things went our way, including the nice weather which meant there were a lot of people out and about to donate money.
"There’s no point putting yourself through all that if you’re only going to raise five quid.
"The people who turned out helped in another way because keeping up conversations for most of the way round really helped to distract me from what was happening to my body during all this.
"Looking back it was the barefoot walkwhich was the hardest because of the hot Tarmac and the constant changes in surface. You felt everything and at times it was like walking on broken glass.
"In fact I did walk on a sliver of glass. I thought it was a stone until I’d finished and saw what was embedded.
"But nothing was going to stop me.”
It is still possible to donate to Nigel’s appeal at https://localgiving.org/fundraising/NigesPainathon. At present the total is approaching £7,000 but there is the money from the pubs to be added so he hopes he might exceed £8,000.
He said: “I know our target was £10k but with the cost of living crisis, this is still a great amount.”