An intrepid couple who completed all 102 Olympic sports during the Tokyo games have been made MBEs. University of Bristol student Charlotte Nichols and window cleaner Stuart Bates raised more than £150,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The charity helped Stuart’s brother Spencer ‘Spenny’ Bates, who died from the disease in 2011, aged 49. Ms Nichols and Mr Bates named their epic challenge the ‘Spennylympics’ and set out to raise £10,000.
They had to rock climb, horse ride, pole vault and sail and completed a triathlon, a 50km speed walk, a 10km swim and a 240km road cycle. As they ticked off sports over the 17 days of Tokyo 2020 last year, their challenge went viral.
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With a groundswell of support in the UK and TV appearances in 50 countries, they received more than 6,000 donations to their Just Giving page. It was far from plain sailing though.
Mr Bates took a tumble from a horse and Ms Nichols had to be rescued from a lake and both had low moments during the often rain-splattered endurance events. But on the final day of the games, the pair finished their challenge with a marathon in front of cheering fans in Mr Bates’s hometown of Weymouth.
Now their efforts have earned them recognition in The Queen’s Birthday Honours. “I am so incredibly proud of what we did and why we did it. It means an awful lot to my parents who lost a son very young,” Mr Bates said.
“They had to watch Spenny go through something so horrific, which robbed him of all the things that make life enjoyable...For me, these MBEs are above and beyond all else for Spenny, they’re in recognition of all he did and his incredible family.
“I have only been able to tell my mum and she is thrilled to bits. She’s bursting with pride and finding it harder not to tell people than I am.
“The Spennylympics were a whirlwind. We were on TV in over 50 countries, we were in magazines, newspapers, on the radio, we did about 300 interviews.
“It just wasn’t normal life. To live all that, with the physical drain of what we’d been doing, and then return to normal life, we were a bit lost after it all ended to be honest.
“But we look back now with an immense amount of pride at what we achieved and how much money we raised. We are looking forward to a huge party this weekend.”
Miss Nichols, who is studying medicine at the University of Bristol, said: “It feels really special to receive an MBE, but if I’m honest, my first reaction was complete shock.
“When I saw the letter was from the Cabinet Office, I thought there was more chance of being asked to be a spy than of getting an honour. I was sure it was going to be a tax bill.
“We knew our antics last summer got quite a lot of attention, but we didn’t expect this. Mostly it’s amazing to have recognition for the charity, which does an incredible job.
“I’m just excited to be able to tell people. Keeping it a secret has been torture.”
Last year Bristol Live spoke to Charlotte ahead of their "terrifying" challenge, and said the university was "amazing" in offering them access to all of their sports facilities, as well as the University of Bath where she was on placement at Royal United Hospital.
The couple live in Oxfordshire but Charlotte is based in Kingsdown in Bristol during her studies. The student doctor spoke of getting up at 5.30am, fitting in one or two exercise sessions like a swim or run, doing a full day's work at the hospital, potentially another exercise session and then spending her evenings in the library studying.
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