A NURSE has rolled up her sleeves in an effort to combine fitness with fundraising in a muscle-burning challenge.

Chloe Harvey, who works at Colchester Hospital, is aiming to raise money for Lexden Springs School with the incredible fitness feat.

The 34-year-old will be undertaking 1,000 burpees in 30 days in a bid to raise funds for a minibus for the school.

The school is raising money to buy a wheelchair accessible minibus for pupils to use.

It is a cause close to Mrs Harvey’s heart as her son George, eight, has autism and ADHD.

She said: “With the lockdown, fitness is one of those things anybody can do and I want to give back to a good cause.

“Everyone hates burpees so it will be a challenge for me but it will keep my fitness up.

“I’m fairly new at getting into the exercise malarky and I just thought how many can I actually do, why not a thousand?

“I started off doing 33 burpees a day which would have easily got me to a thousand by the end of the month, but now I am doing between 50 and 100 a day.”

Help support Chloe Harvey at: http://bit.ly/3c0gRxM

Mrs Harvey’s children have fortunately still been able to attend school throughout the pandemic, as both her and her policeman husband are key-workers.

Mrs Harvey, from Great Horkesley, cursed the aches caused by the burpees, explaining they “kill”.

She added: “I am doing this for Lexden Springs. My George is very lucky he is able to go to a mainstream school but there are a lot of children out there who aren’t as lucky as that.

“Lexden Springs is an amazing provider for those children to get them to a good quality of life and reach their potential.

“They’ve been wanting a mini bus for a long time as the one they have isn’t really adequate enough.

“They have children who are profoundly disabled at the school, the level of support they need is huge. The staff have been putting themselves at risk still teaching and have done a sterling job.

“They [Lexden Springs] are amazing and very supportive of the journey and I couldn’t ask for a better cause really.”

You can help support Mrs Harvey’s gruelling effort at http://bit.ly/3c0gRxM