Tom Blackburn is lifting the equivalent of 27 Minis every day for a month and yes, you have read that correctly!

He’s actually aiming to lift one million kilograms in May and is about halfway through what is surely one of the more remarkable challenges undertaken by anyone in this part of the world. 

When he spoke to The Local Answer – it was 9.30 in the morning – the 38-year-old lawyer was in his office in Cheltenham having already done his daily workout. Unsurprisingly, he said he was “a bit sore!”.

It can take him an hour or an hour and a half to lift more than 30 tons – he’s currently lifting 32 tons a day on average – but while there’s plenty of pain, there’s plenty to gain too because it’s a challenge he’s taken on to raise money for charity. 

The money is going to Maggie’s who provide free cancer support and information in centres across the UK and online.

There are 23 centres in the UK – there’s one in Cheltenham – and by the end of the month Tom is hoping to have raised £2,000 for a cause that is very close to his heart.

Fourteen years ago Tom lost his dad to cancer. Tom was just 24 at the time and his father’s death – he was in his mid-50s – understandably had a profound affect on him.

A few weeks after his dad died, his auntie – his dad’s sister – died of ovarian cancer.

They were incredibly tough times and Tom, who played a lot of sport back in the day, understandably struggled to come to terms with his loss.

He stopped playing sport, the weight piled on and he was very unhappy.

Weightlifting – he trains at Super Training Gym in Bishop’s Cleeve and normally lifts seven to 10 tons a day four or five times a week – has helped him to deal with the grief which he obviously still feels to this day.

His journey is an incredibly moving story – you can find it on his JustGiving page and it reads as follows:

 “Let’s face it, we are all touched one way or another by cancer eventually. I was lucky, it happened later in my life than most.

“My father died suddenly (six weeks after diagnosis) of cancer in his mid-50s (when I was 24). We as a family didn’t know what to do or where to turn, we had been very lucky – this was our first loss.

“Unfortunately, my father’s sister (my auntie) died a few weeks afterwards from ovarian cancer. It felt like the world was closing in and whilst we came out of the other end (I’m very close with my siblings, we share the same dark sense of humour), it would have been much easier if we didn’t have to go through it alone.

“Since moving to Cheltenham in 2018, I became aware of Maggie's who are a cancer charity that helps individuals and families (and anyone else affected by the process) navigate this really difficult time.

“Maggie's helps with everything from counselling, benefits advice, group therapies and so much more. Had we known about Maggie's at the time, we would have been there every week.

"If I can help one person become aware of Maggie's or raise some money that allows other people to access the help they need, then lifting 27 Minis a day for 31 consecutive days will definitely be worth it.

“You might be thinking, 'What has weightlifting got to do with it?' Well, everyone grieves differently. I had always played a lot of sport and I was lucky that I was always in quite good shape (up until my father died).

“After he passed, I was working quite hard in a sedentary job (at a desk), I stopped playing any sport or going to the gym and I started to eat my feelings – two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners was a pretty normal day for me.

“Before my father passed away, I was running quite a bit, playing some football and some rugby. I weighed around 13 stone.

“When my sister got married (2.5 years after he died), us three brothers shared the ‘father of the bride duties’ – one of us walked her down the aisle, one of us gave the father of the bride speech and one of us danced with her. On the day my sister got married, I weighted over 27 stone, nearly 400lbs, over 171 kilos.

“I look back to photos of that day and I don’t recognise myself. I’d doubled my weight (slightly more), I was still grieving and I was very, very unhappy.

“Fortunately, and don’t ask me how, I still don’t know, soon I said ‘enough is enough’. I started going to the gym, I started training with friends and I did every activity I could (running, cycling, boxing, weightlifting etc).

“It was the weightlifting that probably helped me through my grief the most. I love lifting really, really, really heavy weights – weights that are so heavy that I cannot focus on anything other than ‘Am I about to die?’.

“During those moments, my brain was finally quiet, I couldn’t focus on the grief, the loss, my reaction to it or blaming myself/being angry at the world.

“And while I now weigh around 15.5 stone, a lot of it is muscle. I definitely couldn’t out-run my 24-year-old self, but I'd whoop his ass in a weightlifting competition!

“I’ve kept up the weightlifting and slowly become stronger and stronger at it. I view weightlifting a bit like grieving – you can’t do it all at once. But if you show up regularly, apply yourself and stay focused, it gets a tiny bit easier each time.

“Trust the process; in six months’ time it will be noticeably easier, in two years’ time you will be much stronger. It’s a journey, just like grief, and while it never ends or leaves you – it does get easier.” 

Anyone who wishes to support Tom by making a donation should visit https://justgiving.com/page/1m4maggies

Tom is also hosting a charity quiz night at Dunkertons on Wednesday 24th May. Anyone who would like to enter a team should call 07793 000029 or email Tom.Blackburn@croftsolicitors.com

And when this month is up it’s unlikely to be the last we hear about Tom Blackburn, who is originally from London. 

A keen walker who has also taken up swimming this year, he is already planning his next weightlifting challenge.

“A guy in Scotland, a professional athlete, has just tried to lift half a million kilos in a weekend,” said Tom.

“He stopped about halfway through but I think it’s do-able, 10 different sessions between midnight on Friday and midnight on Sunday.”

And if Tom Blackburn thinks he can do it, there won’t be too many arguing with him!