Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing on the radio right before Darren Barker got the bad news: that his swim across the English Channel, the centrepiece of his brutal fitness challenge, could not go ahead. Even now, in his tired state, Barker musters the energy to air drum the chorus and sing the refrain. “Give it away, give it away, give it away now. I was absolutely buzzing... It was probably 10 to 20 seconds later, I got the bad news.”
So much of Barker’s challenge is about overcoming adversity, however. “The Longest Round”, he has called it, as he swims and cycles almost 2,000 miles to raise money for the mental-health charity Calm (Campaign Against Living Miserably), in memory of his late friend Ricky Hatton.
