ON Sunday a few Swindonians took on the challenging obstacle course that is the Tough Mudder.

The 10-mile, 20 obstacle event held at Badminton House Estate is organised to raise funds for the Wiltshire charity Help for Heroes, although participants can raise money for alternative charities.

And there were a few participants from Swindon taking part in the gruelling assault course.

Purton Vets completed the challenge in three and a half hours with six of them from the clinic taking part to help the Alabama Rot Research Fund, a disease which affects the skin and kidneys in dogs and can result in death.

Head nurse Debbie Leonard, 35, said: “I must admit it was more fun than I expected it to be, considering we are all bruised and aching.

“Everyone worked really well as a team and I don’t think we can quite believe that its over now.

The team have raised £800 for the charity and are already trying to organise another physical activity to compete in.

Swindon Borough councillor Dale Heenan swapped the suit and the council chamber and dry agendas and reports for hurling himself over barriers and crawling under nets. He was Raising money for local charities Open Door and Swindon Community Libraries Trust.

Coun Heenan has raised £400 from the event which he will put towards the £10,000 target so that a staff member from Opendoor can be employed to run the new café being built at Liden Library.

He said: “It has been an experience that’s for sure.

“To be honest it has been really good fun, a lot of hard work but it was all worth it for charity.

“I don’t know if I would do this challenge again because it has been the toughest I have faced, and I’ve broken a rib doing boxing for charity before.

Although it was extremely challenging he said it was great to meet other people and the atmosphere was electric.

The largest group of Swindonians to take part were a group of 14 running in memory of a little girl who died before her first birthday.

Michael Hiscok organised the group run along with Ross Norton, whose daughter Aliza May was born last June with Edward syndrome which causes hearts defects.

The little girl was cared for by Helen & Douglas House.

The group running with Ross and Michael Aliza-May’s father raised more than £2,000 for the Oxford hospice.

Michael said: “We all stuck together in memory of Aliza and we were honoured to represent her at this event.

“Everyone managed to do all the obstacles which was surprising because there were some tough ones to get past.

“We will definitely do this again next year and hopefully make it a tradition.”

The group was the last big group to go round the course and they also helped other runners.

Another participant from the town was Jackie Hutchings who took part in the race raising money for the Oak and Furrow wildlife rescue centre in Cricklade.

She posted a picture of a sign on her Instagram account which said: 'Love, work, heal, do magic' and added: "Which is exactly what the staff do at this wildlife rescue centre. I'm doing Tough Mudder to raise money for them."

The next obstacle race in the area is the the Autumn Monster race at Charlton Park Estate in Malmesbury on September 29

There are 5km and 10 km, with participants in the 10km race doing two laps.

www.muddyrace.co.uk