TWO friends are to take on the biggest challenge of their lives in a bid to raise money for young carers in the town.

John Dawson, 28, and Rob Hale, 27, have been in training for the infamous Tough Guy event, which is taking place this weekend in Perton, near Wolverhampton.

The pair prepared for the race, which is entered by around 5,000 people from all over the world, by exercising up to six days a week, including 14km runs and five-a-side football.

The winter Tough Guy challenge is described by its organisers as “the world’s safest, most dangerous taste of mental and physical pain, fear and endurance” and includes a stage called ‘the Killing Fields’ featuring obstacles known as ‘the two 40ft A-frames – and ‘Colditz’ —– three successively higher vertical walls.

John, a former St Joseph’s Catholic College pupil, said: “It’s supposed to be the hardest endurance course in the world – Marines try it. Of the 5,000 people that enter loads don’t finish and at least a third get hypothermia.

“It starts with a six-mile cross country and then at the seventh mile it’s a steep hill and you have to zig-zag up and down it five times.

“Then it’s the Killing Fields with a net over electric charges and you have to go under a cargo net under barbed wire. There’s also a 15ft under water section and you can only stick your head up four times.

“You can’t really train for electric charges but I’ve been doing 14-mile runs, outside in the snow and ice over winter and interval training. I’ve been doing that five or six days a week so I think I’m ready.”

John, who now lives in Liverpool, said the reason he carried on with the madcap idea was the thought of the youngsters who would benefit.

“We have to split the money 50 per cent between Help for Heroes and Swindon Young Carers, who I chose because I was brought up in Swindon and my family still live there,” he said.

“These kids are all under 18 and are having to support a parent who might be disabled or incapable. They are losing their childhood.

“I had a very good childhood so I feel very lucky and even if just £300 can send one of these kids on a trip then it’s worth it – that’s what gets me out of bed now.”

Anyone wanting to sponsor John and Rob can visit https://www.charitygiver.com/charity/john-rob-s-winter-tough-guy-challenge-2011/page/2