An East Lancs firefighter who had a stroke during a CrossFit competition last year has raised more than £1,400 for the Stroke Association and the Fire Fighters Charity.

Zac Blackledge, 33, from Blackburn, was taking part in a CrossFit competition in Middlesbrough in May last year when he suddenly started having a stroke.

Lancashire Telegraph: Zac at the CrossFit competition last yearZac at the CrossFit competition last year (Image: Zac Blackledge)

After bending down to pick up a weight during the warm-up for his last event, he struggled to lift it and felt pins and needles shooting up and down both of his arms.

His speech became slurred and he said it “felt like his tongue was hanging out.”

Zac was rushed to hospital and stayed overnight before being told the next morning he had suffered multiple strokes and that seven different parts of his brain had been affected.

Lancashire Telegraph: Zac was kept in overnight at hospitalZac was kept in overnight at hospital (Image: Zac Blackledge)

He said: “You don’t expect something like that to happen. I was quite young, fit. I was feeling fine on the day and then all of a sudden it happened and it just rocked my world.

“I slowly went back to the gym, really steady, light cardio and then I set myself the target of doing the Hyrox event in Birmingham by myself just to see how I was. I did it and from there I started training harder and harder.”

After coming through that event unscathed, Zac was contacted by a fellow firefighter, Dan Goymer, who would routinely check in on him to see how he was.

Lancashire Telegraph: Zac (back) and Dan during the competitionZac (back) and Dan during the competition (Image: Zac Blackledge/Sportograf.com)

Dan, who had also been helped out by the Fire Fighters charity previously, suggested they did an event together to help raise some money, and they settled on the Hyrox doubles event in Glasgow, with the caveat of doing it fully dressed in fire gear.

The competition was held at the Scottish Event Campus on Saturday, February 11 and contestants had to perform a series of 1km runs with different elements of functional fitness sandwiched between each one.

Zac and Dan completed the event in one hour and 22 minutes and having raised just under £1,400 online, they also managed to raise around £400 in cash on the day of the event too.

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Zac is now hoping to return to work as a firefighter and is waiting on one last report from the hospital in Middlesbrough before being given the all clear from his employers to go back.

After creating a bond with Dan, they now plan on doing more events together.

Zac said: “We’ve got another few challenges planned. Each year we’re hopefully going to do something bigger and better.”