Man to haul 30kg of bricks in 31-mile charity walk

A builder from Coventry will walk 31 miles (50km) for charity whilst carrying 30kg of bricks.

Nigel Howell is known as "the Hodfather" because he uses a wooden handled carrier called a hod to hold the bricks over his shoulder.

Howell's previous charity challenges while carrying a hod, include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and the Three Peaks, a marathon, and a coast-to-coast walk of Hadrian's Wall.

"I've never walked that far before with a hod of bricks. I did a marathon once but that nearly killed me. It's the next level, hopefully I'll be able to do it," Howell said.

All the money raised will go to Zoe's Place Baby Hospice, which provides respite, end-of-life and palliative care for babies, infants and children from across the Midlands with life-limiting conditions and complex needs.

"I'm one of the lucky parents that has three healthy children and I'm privileged to be in that situation. It's a local charity, they need as much help as they can get."

Howell is starting at 05:00 BST on Sunday to try and beat the heat, and will be doing laps of Coventry's War Memorial Park.

He said he hoped people would to come out and support him on the challenge.

"I thought they could actually walk with me if they wanted to. Maybe not have a go with the hod because that's obviously my challenge, but they can see what I do, maybe hold it and see how heavy it is."

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