It's been a challenging season for one Carlisle United member - but not on the pitch.

The Blues' director of football, David Holdsworth, has been spending his lockdown by teaming up with a number of former friends and colleagues from the sporting world and beyond. Their single aim is to raise as much money as possible for charities, ranging from foodbanks to the NHS.

However, his latest challenge is a solo effort - and one which is really testing his limits.

On Friday, Holdsworth set off to complete a double-marathon fundraiser, with all proceeds raised to be donated to the Carlisle Partnership, the NHS and key worker support charities.

“I’ve been working with a lot of my former colleagues in recent weeks on raising money for some fantastic causes,” he explained.

“That’s gone really well, but I wanted to test myself by doing something slightly different, at the same time as providing more help for the NHS and the key workers, and for the superb Carlisle Partnership, who are doing such a wonderful job for us all."

Holdsworth accepted that he needed to stand out from the crowd - and adhere to social distancing and lockdown - and so devised a unique challenge.

“To add the 'little bit different' angle, I'm running the equivalent distance of a marathon in a swimming pool," he explained, "at the same time as holding two 10kg weights in my hand.

"I’ll also be swimming the same distance on top of that."

“Running in the pool holding the weights is proving to be really difficult," he admitted, "and I’m not the best swimmer so that is also becoming a bit of a test.

"The money raised will be checked, as per the donation page, and handed over at the earliest opportunity, and I'd like to thank everybody in advance for their help and support."

Now six days into his challenge, Holdsworth has completed 18 of the 26.2 miles walking, and 15 miles of his swimming marathon.

The combined distance of the double-marathon (with a twist) challenge is 52.4 miles, or 84.4km - and so both Holdsworth and the club are urging people to support these wonderful causes if you can.

To sponsor him or to find out more about the challenge, visit https://bit.ly/2xEDdoi