This year three of our supporters have come up with something really different, raising money for Action Medical Research by racing to the North Pole!
For most of us April means the beginning of summer but our three intrepid 'Action Men' have chosen to go to one of the coldest places on earth to take part in the annual Polar Challenge, a 320 mile foot race to the magnetic North Pole.
Click on the map to see the route in more detail
Nick Webster, Max Livingstone-Learmonth and Dickie McCallum will race on skis against 22 other teams, pulling their own supplies in 120lb sledges called 'pulks'. They will have to navigate the route themselves and work out where and how long to stop and rest each day but to be in the running they will need to ski for at least 12 hours a day!
By the time the race starts, the three men will have been preparing for over a year, enduring several thousand hours and miles of walking, running and dragging tyres.
Nick Webster
Slogging through the Sahara doing the Marathon Des Sables in temperatures of over 115°, Nick realised that the obvious next step was the icy wastelands of the Arctic. He was not expecting anyone to take his slightly overzealous bravado at face value but before he knew it, he found himself signing up with his mates for Polar Challenge 2006.
Nick is 28 and works for an accountancy firm in London. He has completed a number of marathons and as a serving member of 1 Squadron, Honourable Artillery Company regularly takes to the mountains on army exercise.
Nick is looking forward to the mental and physical challenge as well as the privilege of spending time in such a beautiful place (and the opportunity to grow a beard).
Max Livingstone-Learmonth
Max Livingstone-Learmonth is an irrepressible enthusiast, and the allure of a race to the North Pole was too strong for him to resist.
Max is 28 and works as a strategy consultant in London. He has completed the Three Peaks Challenge, several London Marathons and numerous triathlons and climbed Kilimanjaro and parts of the Andes.
Max is ready for but respectful of this his greatest challenge to date, and considers the chance to consume 7,000 calories a day en route to the Pole to be a great bonus.
Dickie McCallum
Dickie is a Yorkshire-born 27 year-old expatriate working for a Hong Kong firm in New Delhi. He enjoys running, reading and travelling.
In 2003 he organised and completed a 28,000km road-trip from London to Beijing and since then has travelled extensively throughout Asia and the Middle East. In 2004 he competed in the Marathon Des Sables, during which Nick first mentioned they compete in the Polar Challenge. The idea proved irresistible and Dickie jumped at the chance to join the 'Action Men'.
He is eager for the mental and physical rigours posed by the race and hopes to return invigorated, inspired (and intact).
