On 10 and 11 October, Jack Hopper, one of our lead design engineers will NOT be designing ostomy care products. Instead, he’ll be challenging himself to raise funds for Bowel & Cancer Research and Crohn’s & Colitis UK.

Jack was aiming to do in one weekend what others aim to do over a year – earn a Spartan Trifecta. Unfortunately, Covid has put paid to this plan, forcing him to come up with a challenge of his own.

To earn a Trifecta, Jack would have had to complete three Spartan obstacle course races: a 5km Sprint with 20 obstacles, a 10km Super with 25 obstacles, and a 21km Beast with 30 obstacles. That’s a total of 36km and 65 obstacles, which could include monkey bars, climbing walls or ropes, spear throwing, lugging heavy stones or flipping tractor tyres.

Jack has been training for the Trifecta on his local hills, known as the South Downs. So he’s decided to complete his own version of the challenge there, by running three cross-country “races” (21km, 10km and 5km) over two days.

Anyone who knows the Downs, know that they’ll provide a tough physical test all of their own! It’s impossible to run them without the long or steep climbs and scrambly descents, stopping or hurdling over regular stiles and gates, and making sure to dodge cows and their output. And it can be made much harder when the wind howls across them.

Jack was doing the Trifecta to raise funds for two charities he’s worked closely with – Bowel & Cancer Research and Crohn’s & Colitis UK, and he doesn’t want to cancel, given that now more than ever charities are struggling to raise funds.

“As a product designer working in ostomy care these are two charities I have worked with on a number of occasions, seeing first-hand the great work they do in both supporting people and their ongoing research efforts. Even though my planned races have been cancelled, I still wanted to help raise money for these very worthy charities.”

Not one for taking it easy, Jack says pacing himself is going to be another challenge. Not surprising for someone who just laughs when asked if he’s competitive.

Good luck from all of us here at Welland, Jack!

You can sponsor Jack, and support these two great charities by going to: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JackHopper2