WHEN John Strange, a medical assistant in the Royal Navy Submarine Service, asked Arkell’s Brewery if he could pull a few pints, he didn’t mean stepping behind a pub bar.

He was asking to borrow one of the brewery’s 15-ton trucks for a truck-pull event at a Strongman competition in aid of the Help for Heroes charity.

The event, last Saturday, held at Swindon Supermarine, raised over £1500 for the charity.

Brewery director George Arkell, who is also a serving member of the Territorial Army, was delighted to help. He said: “Help for Heroes has given hope to so many men in the Armed Services, it was a pleasure to be asked.”

John said: “I have competed in a number of such competitions and saw it as an opportunity to raise some money for Help for Heroes.

“In my job I’ve seen first hand the good work Help for Heroes does to improve injured servicemen’s quality of life.”

This was John’s first time at arranging a competition and despite the rain, 300 spectators watched 43 competitors take part in a variety of strongman classes, as well as the truck pull. The event was so popular that he is now planning to run a similar strongman competition for Help for Heroes later this year. In the meantime he’s in training for the world’s natural strongest team competition and natural British strongest man.