Friends, family and supporters have reached the halfway point of an epic virtual challenge in memory of 22-year-old Ben Brown.

Ben from Gloucester, who was a student at Loughborough University and a member of the Punchline delivery team, died by suicide in April 2020.

In the third annual virtual challenge, hundreds of people will be aiming to cover 33,000km - the equivalent of travelling all the way round Africa and taking in its capital cities.

Together, they have now made it virtually across the treacherous Mozambique Channel and are back on dry land on the world's fourth largest island - Madagascar.

Madagascar is a special place for those who knew Ben, as he spent the summer of 2018 there, volunteering at a place called Nosy Be. He really enjoyed his time there, helping build a school, teaching the children, enjoying the company of the other volunteers and experiencing the culture and wildlife.

Next, the team of walkers, runners, swimmers and cyclists will make their way back across the sea from to Kenya and the city of Nairobi over 2,000kms away.

The Punchline-Gloucester.com team has been supporting the challenge and has so far racked up 971.5kms. Fittingly, as Ben was a member of the delivery team, many of these kilometres were covered during the delivery of The Annual - the first physical magazine Punchline has produced in two years. Team member Sarah Wood also got things off to a flying start by running Manchester marathon on April 3.

Challenges in 2020 and 2021 raised over £50,000 for three mental health and suicide prevention charities - Papyrus, CALM and Shout. Once again, the fundraisers are supporting the charities, but the main aim is to raise awareness and get people talking about mental health.

The challenge, which started on what would have been Ben's 24th birthday, runs until May 7.

It's not too late to get involved. Find out more find out more on Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/TheAfricaChallenge.