Hucknall man to tackle charity Snowdon climb in full firefighter gear

And just to add to the challenge, Jude Brough will be doing the climb in full firefighter’s gear, complete with breathing apparatus, which he says adds about 20 kilograms extra to the load.

Jude, aged 20, who is a retained firefighter in Hucknall, will be doing the climb with a group of students from Hucknall’s Sports Gateway academy, where he is one of the tutors and coaches.

The climb, on April 24, will see Jude raising money for two charities – The Fire Fighters Charity and Sport in Mind, which is a mental health sports charity.

Sports Gateway was founded by Jude’s dad Jamie, who died last year and Jude is doing the climb in his memory as well as to help the charities.

Jude said: “There’s 20 of us going up in all from the college, 15 students and five staff members.

“We had been planning to go up Snowdon anyway and I just wondered how I could incorporate a charity side into it, so I thought I’d do something that would make people want to donate.

“Climbing up Snowdon almost wasn’t enough, I wanted to make it something memorable and so I decided I’d do it in the fire gear.”

Challenges such as these are nothing new to Jude.

Two years ago, he took part in the sleepout event in Nottingham to support homelessness charities and he has also climbed Snowdon before in the past, raising £3,000 for Sport in Mind in the process.

He said: “Our target with this latest club is £1,085 which is £1 for every metre that Snowdon is high and hopefully we can get that and then we’ll split what we get half and half between the two charities.

“The training is going okay, I’ve been on the treadmill and going on a few walks and getting used to having the kit on.

“The students seem to have been enjoying it too and doing it in memory of my dad with the Sports Gateway aspect makes it special as well.”

Jude has set up a JustGiving page for people to donate to the climb – see justgiving.com/crowdfunding/judesnowodonfundraiser