TOP sports MC Phil Seymour has raised around £3,000 in his charity weight loss battle against snooker star Shaun Murphy.

The pair challenged one another to see who could lose the most weight between January 1 and April 16 - the start for the Betfred World Snooker Championship.

Former world champion Murphy’s starting weight was 18st 5lbs while Heworth-based Seymour’s was 18st 11lb.

The challenge will raise money for the York-based Kitchen For Everyone and the Jessie May Trust - with all the cash raised being split between each charity.

Explaining how the challenge began, Seymour said: “On the Tour, you get to know the players and, in normal times, you see them in the bar, the restaurants and the hotels.

“I know a few of the players quite well and Shaun was one of them.

“About six years ago, I weighed just short of 25 stone and I lost 10 stone in a year. Some weight has been creeping back on steadily.

“In lockdown, as I think everyone did, I ate and drank too much and didn’t do enough exercise.

“After Christmas, I put something on social media saying ‘That’s it. - Line drawn, goal set, I need to lose some weight’.

“Shaun rang me up and said ‘I need to lose some weight as well, why not take each other on and see who can lose the most?’

“That’s where it all came from. We both know we need to lose some weight and hopefully before the World Championship, we’ll have raised some money for charity, had a laugh and each lost some weight.”

The charity Seymour is supporting, Kitchen for Everyone, is particularly close to his heart, having previously volunteered there and he expressed his delight at being able to raise such a sizeable amount of money so far.

He continued: “In losing some weight what we’re trying to do is to raise some money for a couple of really good charities.

“There’s Kitchen For Everyone in York, which is a charity that I support and have helped out at in the past. They look after the homeless and less fortunate people in York with food.

“They’re doing a really crucial job.

“We’re also supporting the Jessie May Trust, which is World Snooker’s chosen charity, which gives care at home for terminally ill children and their families.

“They do amazing work.

“I think they’re two really worthwhile charities and if we can lose a bit of weight and have a bit of a laugh along the way then happy days.

“Along with a couple of auctions and our main page, we’ve raised close to £3,000, which is really nice.

“We’d like to get to £5,000, so that each charity gets £2,500 each, but we’ll see how it goes. Initially we set a target of £1,000 and we reached that in two days, which we didn’t expect!”

The pair have been monitoring their progress with regular weigh-ins, as detailed in their Snooker’s Biggest Loser podcast.

And naturally, working in sport, there’s some healthy competition involved too.

“At the last weigh in, I’d lost one stone one and Shaun had lost 13-and-a-half-pounds,” added Seymour

“So I’m just in front at the moment. I need to keep that up because I’m not letting him beat me. I can’t let that happen.”

Head to Apple Podcasts to listen to the Snooker’s Biggest Loser podcast. To donate to Snooker’s Biggest Loser, visit: uk.gofundme.com/f/snookers-biggest-loser