Strongest man's hospice boost (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)
Get involved! Send photos, video, news & views. Text WILTS GAZETTE to 80360 or email us
Chippenham RSS Feed Send your news, pictures & videos
Strongest man's hospice boost
10:17am Tuesday 9th September 2008 in Chippenham By Rachel Allen
Only the toughest guys could handle the weights at the event
Muscle men gathered together at Wiltshire's first ever-strongest person competition on Saturday at the Olympiad Leisure Centre in Chippenham.
Wiltshire's Strongest Person competition organised by 22-year-old Brad Buechel of Chippenham raised money for charity and hospice Naomi House, in memory of his younger brother.
Rick, 19, died in January from an incurable heart disease.
Mr Buechel was pleased with the memorial event. He said: "It was so successful, I'm so pleased with all of the people who turned up. We had more than a hundred spectators and 20 participants."
The event saw three finalists pick up prizes. Martial arts expert and cage fighter Leigh Bulldog' Remedios, of Chippenham took first place, winning one night at any Hilton Hotel in the UK and £500 of MET-Rx sports supplements and merchandise.
Steven Nicholls, a body builder from Melksham, came second winning £250 of MET-Rx supplements and merchandise.
In third place with £100 of MET-Rx products was Fitness First employee Peter Fitchett from Swindon.
The contestants had to take part in a number of tasks including the bench press, dead lift and dip.
The money raised from both the strongest person event and two gigs held on the same day at Olympiad is still being counted.
Even without definite figures, Mr Buechel expects to have raised more than £500 for Naomi House.
He said: "I think that Naomi House is such a great cause, it was my brother's favourite place to be and I think the event was such a success that I would have made Rick proud.
"I will turn this into an annual event building on this year's success and will continue to raise money for the hospice in the hope that families can have the care and treatment Rick had when he was there for a few days each year."
The event was sponsored by big companies including Lucozade, Hilton Hotel, MET-Rx, Blade Engineering at Bumpers Farm, in Chippenham and St John's Ambulance.
