Jaguar Land Rover’s extreme triathlon athlete Hugo Mota has taken on one of the hardest challenges to raise money for the Children’s appeal at Good Hope Hospital.

Hugo has taken on various challenges before but this time flew out to Livigno in Italy to complete the ICON extreme triathlon. The challenge began with a 3.8km night swim in a lake at 1,830m of altitude, followed by a 195km bike ride through four mountain passes including the second highest pass in Europe, and finishing off with a marathon where the finish line is at a 3,000m altitude.

Talking about choosing to take on this challenge for Good Hope Hospital Charity, Hugo said: “I have chosen the Children’s appeal at Good Hope as it’s my local hospital and it’s close to some of my colleagues who frequently attend the hospital for various reasons.

“I would like very child to have the same opportunities like I did to achieve my dreams.”

Hugo has taken on previous extreme triathlon’s including the Celtman in Scotland which had similar distances to the ICON challenge but wasn’t as hard.

Hugo said: “I’ve always been a competitive person and always looked for the next big thing to do. I like the adrenaline of a triathlon race.

“The altitude that the race takes place in is something I’ve never experienced before, I could feel the lack of oxygen on top of the mountains. I could honestly say it was an experience of a lifetime.”

So far Hugo has raised an incredible £724 for the Children’s appeal at Good Hope Hospital which has  refurbished the Children’s Outpatients Department to make it brighter and more child-friendly. With brightly decorated walls, new seating and new toys and games for children, the department is a much nicer environment to be in.

Picture: Laura Power, Fundraising Manager at Good Hope Hospital Charity, and Hugo Mota

Talking about how he found the triathlon, he said: “I felt most comfortable with the swim, it was the first time I did a night swim but I felt privileged to swim on a lake in the Alps whilst the sun was rising.

Getting to the top of the mountain pass on the bike ride is a feeling that I will never forget. The run was tricky, when we got to the bottom of the mountain, the finish line is 1,170m of vertical ascend in under 8km. In the winter this track would usually be a ski slope because of the extreme conditions.

“Due to the extreme conditions you have to have a support team follow you and you complete the race with an athlete, my support runner Joe kept my motivation high and my legs moving even though they were telling me to stop.

“I was very touched by the amount of people supporting the cause and we’re glad we could help and hopefully the money will bring smiles to children in need.”

After 16 hours and 17 minutes Hugo reached the top of the mountain and completed his ICON extreme triathlon challenge for the hospital charity.

Picture: Hugo on the finish line of the ICON Extreme Triathlon challenge in Italy

Not only did Hugo receive sponsorship for his incredible challenge, he asked his family, friends and colleagues to guess how long it would take him to complete and had a prize waiting for the winner!

Laura Power, Fundraising Manager at Good Hope Hospital Charity, said: “What an incredible challenge that Hugo has taken on in aid of the hospital charity’s Children’s appeal. We have never seen anything like this before and we are so glad Hugo chose to take part in it for us.

“Hugo has raised an incredible amount of money which has helped us complete the refurbishment of the Children’s Outpatients Department making it more child-friendly, brighter, calm and colourful, so thank you Hugo!”

You can still donate to Hugo’s JustGiving page by clicking here.

To find out more about the Children’s appeal and how you can still get involved at Good Hope Hospital, please click here.

Watch Hugo's challenge video here:

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