WHEN Nathan Cox heard about the sudden death of a friend, he knew he had to do something to help the young family he left behind.

Ricky Warden died in his sleep, aged 33, in June, having shown no signs of any complications in the run-up.

His partner, 33-year-old Amy Mallin and their children, six-year-old Henri and young Maddison were left heartbroken.

In Ricky’s memory, a huge fundraising effort kicked off driven by Nathan.

Nathan, 37, from Lundwood, ran, cycled and walked 33 miles each because of Ricky’s age with all the money raised going towards Amy and the children.

He said: “With Ricky’s sudden death, Amy had been left emotionally and physically by herself and with two children, Henri and Madison, who needs full-time care.

“It broke my heart to think on top of all this she was no longer financially stable, Ricky was self-employed and she cannot work as she dedicates all her time to Madison.

“Having done many challenges before I had to aim bigger.

“With Ricky being 33 I knew this was the mileage to hit but running 33 miles wouldn’t cut it, so I decided three times 33 would represent Amy and the children.

“I contacted Amy to make sure she was happy I could do it.

“Initially, I set a date of January but after some consideration I decided to bring it forward to August 16 giving myself six weeks to train.

“There were, however, a few obstacles on the way.

“I had ten days In Zante and two weeks before the challenge I sustained a foot injury at football, so my training was non-existent.

“But I knew I could grind out the full distance, the only way I was stopping would be if my heel completely gave way.”

Nathan embarked on his challenge at 5am on a Saturday morning in August and didn’t return home until after midnight the following day.

He added: “We didn’t set a time limit on it, we just wanted to raise as much money for the family as possible.

“People’s generosity never fails to amaze me.

“The run went well and then we slowed down on the bike. We had a big group for the walk which was great.”

And Nathan said he had Ricky in his thoughts throughout and that it was his memory that was pushing him through.

“It was really emotional,” he said. “I had Ricky in my mind the whole way through.

“That’s what got me through it - it was really nice that Amy came along, too.”

With an initial target of £1,000, the total raised now stands at over £3,600.

Nathan’s friend and fellow fundraiser Ryan Hinchliffe nominated Nathan for a Proud of Barnsley award and he is a finalist in the Fundraiser category.

Soldier Nathan is currently deployed in Kenya but was delighted to hear of his nomination: “I am absolutely thrilled to hear the news someone has put me forward for this award and to have reached the final.

“It was great to see the community come together to help Amy and the children.”