At Brighton Accommodation Agency we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take our work and our role in the community seriously. It’s always been a major theme at BAA that we work hard and play hard, but we also want to give as much back to the community as possible. To this end, two years ago we launched the Year of Pain, where we ran a different race each month of the year and managed to raise over £23,000 for The Chestnut Tree House Children's hospice. With so many wonderful and needy charities out there, it was almost impossible to choose one, but we decided on this one, and I’m sure not many would argue!

Anyway, after making some fundamental changes to BAA in 2014, slimming down our staff and services and focusing on being the best in Brighton at residential lettings, we have now decided to spend some of our boundless energy on again helping The Chestnut Tree House raise some much needed funds.

The first Year of Pain focused on fun runs, mud runs, the odd Marathon and some silly runs, and welcomed as many participants as possible. With those type of runs though, there was always a surplus of friends and colleagues who wanted to run and have some fun, but when making the new pledge, we really have to up our game if we again want to break that magic £20,000 barrier – not bad for a small company of four!

So the Year of Pain part two has started, and on the 4th April, company director Dan Lyons ran his first ultra marathon, The South Downs Way 50 – a 50-mile race starting in Worthing and ending in Eastbourne. He came in third from last, 15 minutes before the cut off, but he completed it. An amazing achievement, and one that on the day started the ball rolling by raising over £2,000. Now, with more races to come, taking in Iron Man competitions, more ultra marathons and culminating in the most incredible race of all, the Marathon Des Sables in April 2016. This is a 156-mile race through the Sahara Desert.

Dan, speaking after picking up his finisher’s medal said: “It was absolutely the hardest thing I’ve ever done, really underestimated this challenge and it now puts the other races into perspective, especially the MDS next year, but that’s why we’re doing this, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it!”

We are still looking for extra shirt sponsors for the Year of Pain part two, and please know that all monies raised go directly to charity. BAA pay for all our own race entrance fees and any expenses are covered by us so every penny counts.

For more details visit baagency.co.uk.