CrossFit fanatics to undertake 24 workouts in 24 hours to raise funds for baby with rare brain tumour

A GROUP of CrossFit fanatics will push it to the limit to raise funds for a little lad in need of an operation on an “incredibly rare brain tumour”.

Hannah Berridge (33) and her friends at CrossFit Rotherham will embark on a brutal fitness-testing challenge this weekend to help baby Lake Lynch who has hypothalamic hamartoma.

Lake, now diagnosed with epilepsy, has had seizures since he was five weeks old.

“Medication can somewhat control it but it doesn’t cure it — and an operation is extremely risky,” Hannah said.

The family’s goal is to get £35,000 to cover a potential operation overseas, aftercare, transportation, accommodation and treatment.

Hannah said: “My friend Ryan Cheetham, who knows this family, brought it to our attention.

“We were talking about this at CrossFit Rotherham and we, as a collective, decided to create this challenge to raise awareness and money.

“We’re all relatively physically fit and keep ourselves in shape so we wanted to do something that would challenge us — although it does not remotely compare to what the child is going through.”

She added baby Lake had an “incredibly rare brain tumour” as he is only one in 30,000 in the entire world to have it.

Hannah added they wanted to push themselves to the limit so they chose to do 24 workouts in a 24-hour period.

“We wanted to push ourselves to raise some money,” she said.

“CrossFit is a very high-intensity workout, with Olympic lifting.

“We’ve got a lot of cardio and there’s a lot of gymnastics in it.

“We usually do one workout of the day, known as a WOD.

“When we compete and do local challenges, we might do four WODs as part of a one-day competition.

“Professional athletes would do probably between ten and 12 in four days.

“To do 24 in 24 hours is obviously insane.”

Hannah said the team members would be at the gym for the entirety of the 24-hour period to cheer each other on.

She added: “We’re breaking into smaller teams.

“We’re not medically allowed individually to do 24, so we’re going to take turns to do it as a team.

“But the most important thing is the reason why we’re doing it.”

A large number of local companies have chipped in already and Hannah is inviting others to sponsor a WOD so they can raise the money baby Lake needs.

You can help the child and the family by getting in touch with CrossFit Rotherham and donating at https://tinyurl.com/babylake.