Charity iron man in record bid

A father from Hampshire has started his attempt to break a world record by ironing for 60 hours.

Ben Walton, of Andover, is hoping the stunt will raise £500 towards a total of £25,000 which will buy an incubator at Winchester's Royal County Hospital.

His six-month-old son, Zachary, was born 10 weeks premature at the hospital last December and weighed just 2lb 3oz.

Mr Walton started his bid at the Asda store in Andover on Thursday and hopes to finish by 2000 BST on Saturday.

He is allowed a five-minute break for each hour and he can accumulate them into a maximum 30-minute break. The current record stands at 55 hours and 5 minutes.

Cat nap

It is expected he will iron about 1,000 garments if he completes the feat.

"So far I've been managing about 18 pieces of clothing an hour," he said.

"It is going to be tough staying awake but my plan is to cat nap as much as possible.

"I have done a few sponsored ironing events before for Children in Need but nothing as long as this.

"But it will all be worth it if I can buy the incubator and it saves a child's life."

Mr Walton will have two official adjudicators with him at all times and he must iron the clothing to a good standard.

Members of the public are being urged to take their unfolded laundry to the store for Mr Walton to iron.

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust
Extreme Ironing
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