A GANG of determined fitness fanatics put blood, sweat and tears into a punishing physical endurance challenge in honour of Bury Cancer Support Centre.

Personal trainer Jayne Deakin and her 40-strong team wanted a fitness goal to work towards and decided to take on the gruelling Born Survivor 10km obstacle course.

They tackled the muddy, unforgiving trail at Lowther Castle in Cumbria last Saturday and all lived to tell the tale as they completed the gruelling course.

Jayne, a mother of five who has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor for 20 years, opened her own studio in Manchester Road, Bury, this January.

She said: “Everyone completed Born Survivor, which was very challenging.

“For some, this was fitness wise challenging and for other people it was mentally.

“It took four hours and was just over eight miles long.

“It was very cold as a lot of the obstacles involved water.

“We are now hoping to raise around £3,000 as we have hit £2,000 on our Just Giving page and still have at least another £1,000 to come from sponsorship forms.

“Bury Cancer Support Centre was the cause which touched everybody.

“Everybody knew someone who that centre had been really good for.”

The Born Survivor military fitness course saw participants tackle 30 obstacles, involving climbing, crawling, swinging, sliding, water and mud.

Before the event, ‘Team Deakin’ trained daily at 6.30am and three nights a week at 6pm.

The group also took part in bootcamp and ‘insanity’ classes, running and monkey bar exercises to get themselves prepared, and in the mood, for the daunting event to come.

Jayne added: “We are of all ages and all abilities, but most importantly we are a group of people doing something we love.

“Everyone supports each other and I am so lucky to have a group who all mesh together so well.”

Anyone wishing to donate to their cause can visit justgiving.com/teams/teamdeakin