A BOLTON businessman is recovering after a gruelling 280 mile charity challenge.

Richard Morris, who is director of The Bury Black Pudding Company, recently completed his fourth and final ultra-race to take his fundraising total to over £2,000.

However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Richard over his challenging runs as he did not finish his third attempt.

For his first challenge the Westhoughton resident completed a 120 mile ski from Chamonix to Zermatt which took five days.

He followed this with a 66 mile run from Ambleside through the Lakes and back again which took 20 hours, which he was using as a warm up for his third event.

The final part of his challenge was due to be a 74 mile ultra run from Courmayeur in Italy around and over parts of Mont Blanc to Chamonix in France including climbing over 7,200m.

A disappointed Richard was forced to pull out of his final race after 34 miles as temperatures in France hit 40 degrees.

He said: “I had gone from running at 800m and 12 degrees to getting down the mountain and it being 40 degrees. It was like running straight in to an oven.

“Out of 1,700 people 500 dropped out, it was carnage. I had to pull out.”

Despite being saddened to not finish the race, the first time that he hasn’t in his amateur running career, he knew he had made the right decision.

The 48-year-old said: “I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I came back so my wife said to me why don’t you go out and do another run so I decided to do an ultra-trial of Snowdonia last weekend which was 60 miles.

“I did it in 15.5 hours and it took my total to 280 miles. The support I have had from everyone has been fantastic.

“I was a bit apprehensive about it at first and I have no regrets that I had to pull out of my third race.

“It was about putting myself out of my comfort zone to raise money for a worthy cause.”

Richard has decided to donate the money he has raised to Cancer Research.

He said: “My mum has survived cancer and if it hadn’t been for Cancer Research she might not be here now so it is a cause that is close to my heart.”

To sponsor Richard visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Richard-Morris7200m-vertical