A young man has raised almost £1,000 for the hospice which looked after his father who died before he was born.

Rob Cavanagh, 23, took part in a gruelling obstacle race in Kent last month as a fun challenge along with six friends.

But he decided to use the opportunity to fundraise for The South Bucks Community Hospice as his way of saying thank you for the help the charity gave in 1994 to his late father, David.

Rob said: “As a group of friends, we decided this challenge was something we were going to do, and I thought it was a really good opportunity to do some fundraising by asking people to sponsor me.

“I have never given anything back to the hospice for the help they gave to my dad and I thought it was a great chance to do that.”

Rob never met his father, who died aged 36 from pancreatic cancer. David was looked after at the hospice, then at Pusey House in High Wycombe, in 1994. The hospice has since moved to Butterfly House in Kingswood Place, High Wycombe.

Ben O'Keefe, the hospice's Community Fundraiser, said: “This is a wonderful gesture from Rob and we are humbled by the fact his gratitude for the help given by hospice staff endures after all these years.

“We are enormously grateful to him for still thinking of us and for donating this money to help other patients with life-limiting conditions.”

Rob, a former pupil of Wye Valley School in Bourne End, lived in Terriers until a year ago, but has moved to Slough where he now works as an apprentice for Mars.

He and his friends, who called themselves Tribe Warriors, took part in the Spartan Race South East Sprint and Super Weekend challenge in April, completing the course as a team in three hours and nine minutes.

The course featured a series of challenges including climbing up a rope, carrying a bucket with weights in it and throwing a spear at a target - with a penalty of 30 burpees for missing.

“We were absolutely shattered and were all complaining the next day,” he said. “But we all really enjoyed it to the point we are signing up to do more of them.”

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/robert-cavanagh.