A BROTHER and sister from St Helens have raised an incredible £10,000 after smashing a year of fundraising challenges in honour of their beloved dad.

Michael Wood and Louise Nightingale set themselves a number of gruelling fitness challenges to raise money for Alzheimer's Society; a charity close to their hearts as their dad, Jeff Wood, passed away last December after a three-year battle with the illness.

Michael and Louise set their own challenges to honour their dad, raise funds for the research of Alzheimers and raise awareness of the illness' devastating affects - which included a 850,000 step challenge, a 100km 24-hour walking challenge, a 26 mile trek with other families affected by Alzheimers, the London marathon and many more.

Louise said: "Dad always found the positive in any situation and it seemed fitting that we take a leaf out of his book, honour his memory and push ourselves to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society, who mean a lot to us.

“We’ve shared stories of Dad with the many people we’ve met along the way, remembered him fondly and reminisced about the good times. We’ve laughed at the memories of his bad jokes and he’s been in our thoughts the whole time.

“We set out on a year to remember and it’s certainly been that. We are overwhelmed at how much we’ve now raised and feel really proud as we know what a difference Alzheimer’s Society can make to people who are going through the experiences and challenges we faced with Dad.”

Explaining that the pair shared their progress on social media to continually educate people about Alzheimer's, Louise said: "This was really well received by my connections and hopefully people have learnt more about the condition.”

After smashing a personal 100km walking challenge in 24 hours, in addition to a three-day test which included an 11-mile canoe across Lake Windemere, a 200-mile cycle to London and then completing the London Marathon, Michael said: “People kept saying it couldn’t be done, but that just made me all the more determined to prove them wrong."

Michael said: “Apart from getting married and the birth of my kids it’s one of the best things I’ve done. [...] It’s the closest I’ll ever get to being a rock star."

With close friends and spouses supporting Louise and Michael throughout the year, and even joining them on some challenges, the family are delighted to have completed the year with such an amazing amount of money raised.

With his dad not far from his thoughts on his treks, Michael added: "Louise and I are delighted to have raised almost £11,000 in memory of Dad. We wanted to do something positive for Dad instead of sitting round feeling sad and we’ve definitely achieved that with the amazing support of our family and friends.”

Louise stated: “Taking on the challenges would never fill the hole in our lives since Dad passed away but it has been great to be able to generate some positive outcomes and memories from a time of grief. With the support from family and friends we are proud to be #unitedagainstdementia.”

If you would like to sponsor Michael and Louise please go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/challenge4dementia