A 21-year-old man has skateboarded from Brighton to Africa in 55 days.
Sam Allison skated some 1,500 miles (2,415km) to Tangier in Morocco – taking a downhill tumble and getting all his possessions stolen along the way.
But he kept going to raise awareness of mental health and has so far made more than £5,000 for the Ben Raemers Foundation, a charity supporting wellbeing in the skateboarding community.
“I had my own challenges with mental health,” said Mr Allison. “The skate scene is very tight-knit, it’s very community driven, so having a service like that within the community is amazing.”
It was a gruelling physical challenge, which Mr Allison told Radio Sussex meant he would need to cover between 30 and 55 miles every day.
“It was definitely harder at first. But my body kinda got used to it pretty quick and it just felt like the norm because I would wake up and I just knew what I had to do every day,” he said.
Travelling on a skateboard on flat pavements is one thing – but Mr Allison’s route got a little bumpy at times.
“Going up was definitely harder – but downwards is a saving grace because I could save all my energy going downhill, I wouldn’t have to push and it was super fun, the adrenalin [was] running,” he said.
“But I did have a bit of a tumble going down one of the hills, my arm got a bit scraped up.
“All in all I think I’ve done pretty well – I only fell the one time during the whole trip, so I’m proud of that.”
After setting his fundraising target at only £100, Mr Allison was amazed as the donations started rolling in.
“On the last day I cracked over £5,000, which was crazy. It just sort of went mad,” he said.
All the money will be going to charity, while Mr Allison will no doubt need to invest in a new pair of wheels for his skateboard.
“I did the one pair of wheels – I will say they’re absolutely haggard,” he laughed.
