John

School caretaker John Bird has taken it upon himself to attempt to hit 7,500 balls in 24 hours to raise money for charity.

Skipping past the obvious jokes (“that’s how many shots AP takes in a single round”), John’s golf-a-thon will take place over two days, Saturday July 2 and Sunday July 3, at TopGolf in Watford.

“After my sister was diagnosed with cancer, I knew I wanted to do something to help,” said John, who works at Longdean School in Hemel Hempstead. “Running isn’t my thing, so thought this would be something different.

“I’ve been training a bit and hitting a few tennis balls out for my dogs and I’ll be going to the gym in preparation.

John is hoping to raise £1,000 and will split the money between Cancer Research and Macmillan.

He added: “Hopefully I’ll manage to get the best TopGolf score ever and I won’t be in too much pain afterwards!”

Anyone wishing to sponsor John or get involved with fundraising should contact TopGolf’s Matt Smith on matt.smith@topgolf.com