*as seen in Portsmouth News*

Gosport fitness fanatics smash their fundraising and bench press targets to raise more than £1,000

A GOSPORT gym owner has raised over £1000 alongside 13 of his Southern Strength ‘family’ after bench pressing 137,200 kilos in memory of those lost to cancer.

By Elsa WaterfieldSunday, 2nd October 2022, 8:24 am- 2 min readUpdatedSunday, 2nd October 2022, 8:24 am

Matt Allen, the owner of Southern Strength UK, was joined by 13 members of his gym in reaching his goal to lift one kilogram for every person who has lost their life to cancer within the last year.

The team completed the charity bench press at Matt’s Gosport gym today, and raised more than £1,000 Cancer Research UK - a cause close to the heart of everyone involved who have all been affected by the disease.

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Matt said: ‘We did it in two hours and 20 minutes and we managed to hit 137,200 kilos. It was really good fun and such a great atmosphere. There were a lot of smiles and laughs.

‘Someone came to support and ended up jumping in, my neighbours came and he jumped in as well. It was brilliant, so good, everyone just pulled together and were egging each other on.’

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Matt and the team kept their cool when the pressure was rising.

‘Where I’ve got bit of a bad back at the moment, it got to the point on my last set when I was thinking ‘oh God’ and then we hit the target!

‘I thought thank god, I don’t have to do anymore,’ laughed Matt

While Matt has not yet finished counting donations given on the day, he knows the total succeeds the £1000 target he set himself and his fellow fitness fiends.

‘It’s gone really well, we should quite easily hit the £1,000 target. It’s £1,000 that Cancer Research didn’t have, I’m so proud of them all, they all did really well,’ added Matt.

Matt, 46, himself has lost three family members to the disease and when his father was 60, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and ‘saved’ by cancer research – compelling Matt to do something in return.

‘I phoned my dad as soon as we were finished, he’s over the moon and really proud,’ said Matt.

‘We absolutely obliterated it, I didn’t expect to get it done quite that quick.’

Matt and his team hope to make the fundraiser an annual event, possibly holding a vote to determine which charity they’ll donate their next effort to.