Tough guys brave gruelling challenge for charity (From The Northern Echo)

IT engineers Michael Brown and Steve Housego, from ITPS, in Gateshead, survive Tough Guy Challenge

6:00am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in Business News By Steven Hugill

TWO brave North-East IT engineers survived electrocution and blazing fire pits to complete the world's toughest endurance test.

Michael Brown and Steve Housego, from ITPS, in Gateshead, took part in the Tough Guy Challenge, raising more than £500 for the RNLI and Children North East.

The gruelling test saw the pair take on an eight-mile course used by Army troops and included underwater tunnels and icy swamps covered in barbed wire.

The demanding challenge, which took place in Staffordshire, saw more than 220 entrants taken to hospital with broken bones and hypothermia.

Mr Brown, a volunteer lifeboat crewman at Newbiggin, in Northumberland, said: “The conditions were terrible, it was freezing cold and the snow had melted so the mud was at least a foot deep.

“There were huge chunks of ice floating around in the water obstacles and one man was airlifted to hospital after being electrocuted and falling face down in the water.

“We were crawling through filthy water filled with chunks of metal and tyres while dodging live electric cables.

“It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but fantastic at the same time.”