Dave Craven: Friend who joined league legends in Old Trafford charity trek

A few years ago, when he told me he was embarking on some crazy cycle challenge through France, I’m sure he said he was doing it with a bloke called ‘Sully’.

I had visions of him pedalling 700 miles along with a guy in full Monsters Inc garb.

It turned out it was Scully, the former Great Britain captain Paul Sculthorpe. When it later transpired he’d shared a car to a training session with ‘another top lad’ who likes a pint or too, it soon became apparent he was referring to Gary Connolly.

My pal was name-dropping some of the legends of the game without even knowing it. I suddenly became very envious.

Neil was taking part in the 2009 Carnegie Challenge as part of one of the excellent Steve Prescott Foundation charity events.

It had entailed that mammoth bike haul from Perpignan and included a row up the Thames before running a half marathon to deliver the Challenge Cup final match ball to Wembley, all inside just 13 days.

Neil was doing it to help his good friend Jimmy Gittins, the former Wakefield Trinity and Dewsbury Rams player who was paralysed after breaking his neck in two places while playing for Sharlston Rovers 10 years ago.

Jimmy completed the task on a specially-designed quad bike and, with rugby league stars such as Sculthorpe, Connolly, Prescott – who suffers from a rare form of leukaemia – and Chris Joynt they helped raise thousands of pounds.

Neil, who let’s just say is a hard man to please, readily accepted it was one of the most rewarding times of his life during which he met friends for life as well.

And now, a lot of them are at it again. This time they are embarking on The Race To The Grand Final, a relentless 48 hour ‘quadrathon’ challenge that includes running, cycling, kayaking and swimming.

Note the swimming. Neil isn’t too keen on that. He is the first to admit his style resembles more doggy paddle than anything akin to Olympic front crawl.

Next month, though, he must swim the width of the Humber Estuary. But, never one to shirk a challenge, and someone who thrives on pushing himself to the limits, with some intensive training he’s gone from barely managing two lengths of a pool to now clocking a mile in open water at under 40 minutes.

He’s totally bossed Pugney’s Country Park and every time I now see him it makes me feel like a feeble, lazy loser; he somehow fits in his punishing schedule alongside running his own plumbing business, juggling two lively young scamps of boys and building his own house.

That is all very impressive but, of course, it all pales into insignificance compared to the remarkable endeavours of Jimmy.

He has joined Neil on that lake on a surfboard as he prepares for the Humber aspect of what is the toughest challenge yet and is also hand-tricycling much of the route. It is truly inspirational considering what he, Pete Stephenson – another player initially paralysed while playing the sport – and Prescott must undertake to fulfil these daunting and arduous prospects.

They are then back on their cycles to travel the width of the country to Liverpool where they will then swim the Mersey.

Next they run 18 miles upstream until they come to the Runcorn Bridge where the Bridgewater Canal begins.

From here, everyone will kayak 26 miles down the canal onwards to Old Trafford in time to watch the Grand Final on October 6.

Three years on from that last effort, Neil still doesn’t know too much about the sport – he just scrolls down a list on his phone now so I can spot any luminaries – but it’s efforts like this which always bring the best out of it.

Christies Cancer Hospital and the Try Assist Benevolent Fund are the benefactors. Visit www.justgiving.com/jimmy-gittins or www.steveprescottfoundation.co.uk for more details.