Wigan judo ace tackles rowing challenge for hospice

Connah Anders from Hindley, covered 22 miles on a rowing machine in his dining room to help Wigan and Leigh Hospice (WLH).

The 25-year-old took on the challenge, which was the equivalent distance of crossing the English Channel, as the Hindley-based charity looked after his grandad Alan Davies.

Connah, who is a blind athlete in the Great Britain judo squad, did the challenge on Wednesday (May 5).

He said: “My granddad was in the hospice last year for a couple of days before he died. Before that he had help at home from hospice nurses.

“I was in Georgia training at the time he was on the ward so I asked my mum a lot of questions about what was happening.

"She told me what help he was getting, how he had his own bedroom and patio doors and I realised they were doing a lot.

“During the pandemic I haven’t been able to train because it’s a contact sport and now I want to get fit so I can hopefully restart my judo training.

“I also wanted to do some fund-raising so I decided to put the two together.”

Connah trains at the British Judo Centre of Excellence in Walsall in the West Midlands from Monday to Thursday and also is a student at the nearby university campus which is part of the University of Wolverhampton.

He studies strength and conditioning, which he describes as a kind of highly-skilled personal training.

However, he did just a few weeks of training ahead of the charity rowing event to make it all the tougher for himself.

“I wanted to push myself to do something I haven’t done before,” he said.

“I got a rowing machine off my parents at Christmas and wanted to do something with a difference so I picked a distance of rowing the equivalent of the English Channel at random.

“I’ve not given myself a massive training window because I want it to be difficult.

“I know if I’d given myself six months to train it wouldn’t be a challenge so I’ve given myself a few weeks to get used to it and straight away it’s a massive challenge.”

Speaking before the event, Connah expected the challenge to take around four and a half hours and was hoping to livestream his efforts.

Connah announced his challenge on social media and it immediately struck a chord, with £500 in donations pouring in on the first day. He is now up to more than £800.

He added: “My grandad was funny, he always helped me and he was interested in knowing what I was doing.

“He lived across the road so I saw him all the time growing up.

“I wanted the funds to go to a charity that I know does a lot of good stuff and I thought after what happened with grandad I wanted to help the hospice.”

If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here and viewing our offers.