A STUDENT is getting ready to complete a gruelling 250-kilometre swim, cycle and run, which could take him up to 19 hours, in a bid to raise £2,000 for charity.

Sam Black, 22, will take on the Celtman, a mega triathlon held in north-west Scotland, in June to collect money for Breast Cancer Now.

The event will see him swim 3.8 kilometres in Loch Shieldaig, before getting on his bike for a 202-kilometre cycle around the Scottish Highland roads and finishing off with a draining 42-kilometre run over two Munros.

Sam is no stranger to this sort of event, having completed triathlons before.

He said: “I did one near Fort William that was a two-kilometre swim, a decent cycle and then a run up and down Ben Nevis.

“But I’ve never done anything in this league before – nothing that is like an Iron Man distance.”

Sam, who is studying marine science at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, broke down his average training day.

He said: “I’m doing yoga in the morning on a training day.

“Then, I’m usually eating a lot of food, stocking up on porridge or Weetabix and the runs I am doing are usually about an hour and a half.

“I do one of two types of runs, either intervals or long-distance runs. My cycling is two and a half hours and I usually cover 60 or 70 kilometres and try to include as many ascents as I can.”

The race, which is now in its fifth year, regularly attracts more than 1,000 entries.

Sam, of Dunbar’s East Links Road, was one of the 300 or so to make the cut and he will take on the challenge on June 25.

The former Dunbar Primary School and Dunbar Grammar School student gets a bus to the start line at 3am. The swim, in an icy cold sea loch, gets under way an hour later, with competitors finishing the entire event some time between 12 and 19 hours later.

As well as a personal challenge, Sam was looking to raise money for the charity, which is the largest of its kind, having been formed by the merger of Breast Cancer Campaign and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

The charity funds cutting-edge research and is focused entirely on breast cancer.

He told the Courier a close family relative had been diagnosed with breast cancer roughly a decade ago and he was determined to do something to say thank you.

Already, he has raised more than £150 through a bake sale at his former primary school, with a series of other fundraisers being finalised.

To donate, go to justgiving.com/samuelblack