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Former boxing champion takes on 1,800-mile cycle-and-swim challenge for suicide prevention

Darren Barker is travelling from Edinburgh to Morocco by bike and open-water swim to raise money for CALM in memory of Ricky Hatton.

By The TEA Editorial Desk · 28 August 2026

Darren Barker preparing for The Longest Round fundraising challenge Image: Prolific North / Darren BarkerOriginal source

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Former world middleweight champion Darren Barker has begun a journey from Edinburgh to Morocco involving thousands of kilometres of cycling and two formidable open-water swims.

The Longest Round includes cycling from Edinburgh to Dover, swimming the English Channel, cycling through France and Spain to Gibraltar, then swimming the Strait of Gibraltar into Morocco.

Barker is raising money for suicide- charity CALM in memory of Ricky Hatton, who supported the charity before his death in 2025. It is an endurance challenge built around a message Barker wants carried much further than the route itself: talking about should happen before somebody reaches crisis.