MOST of us probably wouldn't last one round in a boxing ring, let alone 50.

It's a prospect that doesn't bother Tom Mennell.

The 30-year-old Morrisons worker and York boxer is planning a 50-round charity sparring session at the TSM boxing club in Acomb on October 24 - with all the money raised going to NHS Charities Together.

It's a great cause. But 50 rounds?

"I think I'll last 50," he says. "It's only an hour, or 45 minutes. And it's not fighting, just sparring. I'll come out with black eyes and a few bruises - but I'm quite fit."

He's set himself a target of £3,000 - though he'll be happy with whatever he can raise, admits the dad-of-one, who lives on the north side of York.

All the money will go to the NHS. "Look at what they've had to deal with over the past 18 months. I wasn't affected by the pandemic myself - but I know a few people who have had it!"

Tom, who suffered a brain injury and was diagnosed with epilepsy after contracting encephalitis as a result of food poisoning when he was two, had to get special clearance before he was allowed to box.

He's proud of his record of five wins in the ring against just a single loss. But he no longer fights, because of his 19-month-old daughter. "I don't have the time!" he says.

That doesn't stop him fundraising. He's a veteran - with more than £12,000 raised since 2013 for good causes ranging from St Leonards Hospice and York Against Cancer to Macmillan and Brain Tumour Research.

It was his dad Berni's death from a brain tumour in 2012, aged just 54, that set him on the fundraising path. "He was mint. He was a great dad!" Tom says.

His first fundraising effort was a tandem charity skydive, which raised £205 for St Leonard's Hospice, where Berni had spent the last weeks of his life.

Since then he has also done a sponsored leg wax for Brave the Shave, six boxing matches and supported fundraising events at Morrisons in Foss Islands, where he works.

He has made the headlines before for his fundraising efforts - he was nominated in 2018 for the York Community Pride Award as Fundraiser of The Year. He's hoping that for his charity event on October 24 some of his boxing mates will join him as sparring partners. And he's confident that some of his customers at Morrisons will also sponsor him.

They have in the past, he says - even to the extent of paying £1 to a charity of his choice to nominate the tune he walked out to for a fight...

To support Tom's fundraising sparring session, visit his just giving page justgiving.com/fundraising/tom-mennell27