Matt's labour of love in memory of mum (From Halesowen News)

Matt's labour of love in memory of mum

3:58pm Monday 30th July 2012 in News

THE son of a Halesowen woman who was killed in a hit and run incident pushed himself to the limits of his endurance to raise cash for a charity in her memory.

Matt Brown, whose mum Elaine was knocked down on Birmingham’s Coventry Road, took part in the Outlaw Ironman in Nottingham which saw him swim 2.4 miles, then cycle 112 miles before finishing with a marathon.

Since 53-year-old Elaine was killed in 2005 Matt has raised more than £2k for the road safety charity Brake which works to raise awareness to stop death on the roads.

The Ironman, at the National Watersports Centre in Holme Pierrepont, was the latest in a series of challenges including triathalons, the 30-year-old has taken part in.

Matt said: “I have been building up to this for over a year by taking part in shorter triathlons and running half marathons.

“I was really pleased to finish in 12 hours, 45 minutes and nine seconds.

“It was harder than I was expecting; the last 20 miles of the bike ride and the first five miles of the run the worst bits.”

The West Midlands Ambulance Service employee, of Netherton, almost didn’t finish the event when the crank of his bike fell off.

He said: “I was really lucky. Where it came off, there was another competitor who had dropped out. He grabbed some tools from his car and re-attached the crank and I was able to continue having only lost a few minutes.”

Mrs Brown, of Manor Abbey Road, had popped out from work to buy some milk when she was knocked down by a motorist who had already been banned from driving for other offences.

He was caught and sentenced to five years in jail, but only served three.

Matt has now raised more than £2,290 pounds for Brake but is not planning on giving up fundraising any time soon - his next challenge looks set to be the London marathon next year.

Vist his page on the ‘Just Giving’ website at www.justgiving.com/Matt-Brown0/