Joel Hicks

My charity and fundraising efforts began in 2006 with the World Bog Snorkelling Championships, which took place in the dense Waen Rhydd peat bog, near Llanwrtyd Wells in mid Wales.

After a fantastic day, during which I performed a bog snorkelling "Haka", I began to wonder what other weird, wonderful and wacky events I could get involved in, in order to raise money for good causes and to just put a smile on people's faces.

In the remainder of 2006 I took part in the Great Gorilla Run in London, and in a number of multi-terrain cross country races, before travelling to Liverpool to be a part of the biggest Santa Dash in the UK (if not the world!). In doing so, I was lucky enough to be spotted amongst the 5,000 or so other festive runners and received my first honour of "Best Dressed Santa" for my inflatable Santa outfit!