Rob’s hammock is bed for a year
NEWMARKET JOURNAL FEB 2012. ROB CHALLINOR AND HIS DOG DUKE, RAISING MONEY FOR MAGPAS BY SLEEPING OUTSIDE IN HIS BACK GARDEN FOR A YEAR WITH VOLUNTEER PARAMEDIC DAN READ, ROBS MUM AND SISTER CAROL AND KELLY ANN.
AN EXNING schoolboy, who lists survival expert Bear Grylls as one of his heroes, is sleeping in his back garden for a year to raise funds for the charity which saved his sister’s life.
Fifteen-year-old Rob Challinor has been sleeping in a hammock in a makeshift tent behind his home in Northend since August, to help Magpas, the emergency doctors’ organisation.
The charity provided life-saving treatment to his sister Kelly-Ann, now 16, when she suffered serious head injuries in an horrific riding accident in 2005.
Rob, an Explorer Scout, is also raising money for the Child Brain Injury Trust, a charity which counts Kelly-Ann among its ambassadors and promotes ways in which brain injuries can be prevented.
With only his boxer dog Duke for company, Rob, a student at Bottisham Village College, has had to cope with sub zero temperatures and being woken by the local wildlife but he said he was determined to see out the 195 days he has left to complete his challenge.
“The worst bit about being outside is the noise. There are some horses next to where I sleep and they run around and keep me awake,” he said.
“At first people thought I was insane doing this, but I thought it would be a unique idea. I love camping and I am really comfortable in my hammock and my main problem is getting too hot.
“I usually go to bed around 10pm and wake up between 6am and 6.30am, so I get a really good night’s sleep.”
Rob’s sister Kelly-Ann, deputy head girl at Bottisham Village College, said she thought her brother was an “absolute nutter” but was very proud of him. “If anyone can do this, he can,” she said.
Mum Carol, 40, added: “Rob is very determined and gutsy and he has to be tough, because recently the weather has been really cold.”
She said Rob was determined to help Magpas because without the help of the charity at the time of her accident, she is convinced her daughter would not have survived.
Magpas doctor Paul Silverston was called in by paramedics at the scene of the accident. He sedated Kelly-Ann and then monitored her all the way to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where she spent five days in intensive care before having facial reconstructive surgery including a plate inserted into her skull and into one side of her face, with wire fixed into her other cheek.
But she was back in the saddle just two months later and now has her own horse, Arthur.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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