I've never done this before, and I've probably also never personally asked you for any money either. I hope you can dig deep to show your support!

In July, I will be crawling, climbing and jumping through mud and general filth in order to raise as much money as possible for my friend Liam Egalton.

I went to university with Liam and he's one of the nicest people you could meet. Four years ago his life was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with MS. Since then he's been going through hell, with his symptoms becoming progressively worse, to the extent that he's now increasingly housebound. All the things I take for granted - work, socialising, taking my son to the park, going for a run, doing things on a whim just because I can.... all of these have been taken from Liam.

The good news is that Liam is a fighter. He's going to stop the disease confining him to a wheelchair but to do that needs to raise £40,000 to fund a course of pioneering stem cell treatment, unavailable on the NHS. This will involve traveling to Panana. For more information on Liam's story: https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/essex-man-launches-40000-appeal-1447417

I have nothing but admiration for how Liam is up for this fight, and would be eternally grateful if you could sponsor me to complete a Tough Mudder and see how much we can chip away at his £40,000 target to get his life back. For those of you not au fait with Tough Muddler, it's essentially a mud based obstactle course where participants get electrocuted, battered and bruised as you make your way over a range of different challenges.

Thank you for reading, and I'm so grateful to you for any financial support you can offer. I'll need all the positivity I can get as I drag myself around the course!

Thanks for reading.

Simon Callaghan