A Bristol extreme fundraiser who took on an epic year of charity challenges has been shortlisted for a Pride of Britain Award. Lloyd Kembrey and his friends battled sub-zero temperatures in a 31-mile ice skating race, hallucinated due to extreme tiredness during a 24-hour cycle and capsized while canoeing the River Wye.
Their 15 challenges raised £43,000 for Jessie May, a charity which provides at-home nursing support to children with life-limiting diseases. The charity cared for Lloyd’s cousins, Josephine and Francesca, who both suffered from a rare degenerative disease.
“I don’t think my auntie’s stopped crying since she found out about the nomination,” Lloyd said. “There’s a sense of pride in the family, and there’s the fact that their daughters’ names are still being spoken about.”
The challenges that Lloyd and his school friends – Jake Macmillan, Brad Kislingbury and Joe Humphreys – tackled included running the London Marathon and bungee jumping dressed as Father Christmas.
Lloyd, who works as a facilities manager at the University of Bristol, said: “We trained for the ice skating ultramarathon with the help of the Pitbulls [a local ice hockey side]. In the first session I spent the whole time holding onto the side of the rink. The race was tough, at one point the blade of my skate went into a crack in the ice and I went flying!
“For the 24-hour cycle we started in California, Norfolk, and cycled to Bristol. After 21 hours I hallucinated I was seeing a boat on the road.
“The delirium had set in and it was tough. But it’s nice to see how far you can push yourself.”
The money they have raised will fund a nurse for a year. Lloyd’s first fundraising drive for Jessie May was aged just six years old, when he and his mum stood outside Bristol Hippodrome with collection buckets.
And he isn’t slowing down now. Next year, the four friends are aiming to fundraise while breaking a world record, by becoming the first people to space hopper across a country.
“We’ve gone for Liechtenstein because it’s only 15km long,” Lloyd laughed.
Lloyd even takes on challenges in his spare time. In fact, he found out about the Pride of Britain nomination just before starting an Ironman event in Sweden. He said he was “taken completely by surprise” by the nomination.
Lloyd added: “I just didn’t expect to have that phone call. It made the final sprint to the finish easier!”
Lloyd is one of four people nominated by ITV West Country for the Pride of Britain Fundraiser of the Year 2024. One of the fundraisers will be crowned ITV News West Country’s 2024 Regional Fundraiser of the Year Award and will head to the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards ceremony.