Dave to run 150 miles in scorching desert

And if that wasn’t hard enough, one has to take on the epic endurance trail wearing a 10Kg rucksack full of food on your back while contending with venomous snakes and scorpions in the desert sand.

These are just some of the challenges Angmering firefighter David McMahon will face in April, as he jets off to Morocco to take part in the 28th Marathon Des Sables, in an effort to raise £5,000 for St Barnabas House hospice, in Worthing.

Dave, 48, has been training for the event – tipped as the most gruelling endurance competition in the world – for the best part of a year.

The father-of-two, of Mill Road Avenue, said: “Now we’re getting closer to the run, I’m starting to get pretty nervous.

“I have heard some horrendous horror stories about people who have taken part before.

“Some of them have come away with blisters so bad that the skin on the sole of their foot has literally dropped off.

“So this is going to be a real test of physical endurance as well as mental endurance.”

Dave, who is the last man standing out of an original squad of four other firefighters who agreed to enter the ultra-marathon, said he is almost at his peak fitness. He regularly runs around 60 miles a week over the South Downs and has been known to jog the distance of two marathons, over a single weekend.

In the past, he has taken part in a few official marathons, once in Worthing, in 1984, and more recently in Brighton, in 2011, as well as a spattering of half-marathons and other endurance events.

Dave is paying for the £5,000 trip overseas entirely from his own money, ensuring that every penny he raises will go to the hospice. So far he has around £800 in his kitty.

“It’s a charity that’s only a mile-and-a-half from where I live, as the crow flies, and I know just how many families it helps to support, so I really want to raise as much cash as I can,” he said.

Dave is now urging any companies or individuals to support him. To help, email [email protected] or see here