Man Completes 70-Mile Hike Carrying Fridge on His Back to Honor Late Wife

A British man has completed a 70-mile hike while carrying an 80-lb. fridge freezer on his back, stemming from a bet he had made with her before she died. 

Matt Jones walked across the Clwydian mountain range in Wales twice as part of the Llangollen Round in less than 36 hours, according to the BBC, Wales Online and The Times. His endeavor, which began this past weekend, raised $68,000 for Hope House Children’s Hospices. 

The story behind Jones’ hike began last September from a bet he made with his wife Vicky, after he awoke in the hospital when he received a new hip. 

“The surgeon was telling me I had to slow down and I would cause further damage to other parts of body if it did not listen!” Jones wrote on his fundraising page. 

“Vicky was sat in corner of room laughing whist telling the surgeon ‘You might as well talk to a brick wall!’ ” he continued. 

Jones said that Vicky told the surgeon that he completed the hike in 2018, in which he fractured his ankle and lacerated his Achilles during the first mile. But he continued on the remaining 34 miles of the route with his injuries. As a result, he had to spend four days in the hospital and needed two surgeries. 

“She told him ‘Knowing this stupid idiot he will try and complete it next time with a fridge on his back!’ ” Jones recalled. 

“I replied ‘I will do it twice with a fridge freezer on my back!!!’ ” he added. 

That exchange turned into a bet. Jones said he never thought he could accomplish such a feat after his operation but added that Vicky was confident in him. 

Unfortunately, Vicky died two days before Christmas. She was a mother to the couple’s four children. 

“Vicky is beautiful, inside and out,” Jones further wrote in the fundraising page. “She is also loving, caring, loyal, generous, committed, positive and brave. Would light up every room she was in, she dazzled and captivated everyone who saw her.”

“She was able to lift others,” he further stated. “Always putting everyone else first, sometimes too much. Doing anything for anyone, even if she didn’t really know them.”

It was in January when Jones’ kids brought up the bet, to which he replied he would keep that promise. 

Training for the Llangollen Round, which was set for Saturday, May 31, began shortly after, a process that Jones described as brutal. It would require him to cover 70 miles over the Clwydian mountain range and more than 15,000 feet in elevation gain within 36 hours — all while carrying the 80-lb. fridge freezer. 

“Without doubt the hardest training I have ever done mentally and physically,” Jones, a former British Army Commando, wrote. “The mountains have become my church.”

He told Wales Online that the endeavor was initially a private matter between him and his children, but people started to notice him training in the mountains with the fridge on his back.

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“The training started and this, this fridge freezer guy became a bit of a myth locally,” Jones said, according to the outlet. “People were starting to talk saying, ‘Have you heard about this guy up in the mountains with a fridge on his back?’ Then it got to a point where I couldn’t keep it a secret anymore.”

Jones further said that Vicky was an inspiration to him and their children. 

“She was an incredible inspiring lady that had a gift of empowering people with confidence to believe in themselves” said Jones, Wales Online reported. “She would always say you are the only you, own it, rock it, be it, embrace it, love it, be it.”

After he completed the event, Jones said, according to The Times, that the first day of the challenge initially left him defeated when he encountered blustery conditions. After he few hours’ sleep, he proceeded on and witnessed a rainbow 

“No one said anything, we just all looked at each other, we put the music on as loud as we could, and we absolutely just went up another couple of gears,” Jones said, Wales Online reported. 

Reflecting on the accomplishment. The Times reported that Jones said that his “whole body was screaming, and I hit breaking point early on after a fuelling error. In the toughest moments, it was Vicky’s voice through our four children that was telling me: ‘You’ve got this, be you.’ ”

PEOPLE contacted Jones on Thursday, June 5.