The Beetles made the ferry across the Mersey world-famous. In July 2006, Paul McKelvey swam the Mersey pushing a fridge on a surfboard to raise money for a charity in Liverpool - Zoe’s Place, which works with terminally ill children in his home city.
This was Paul’s third major fundraiser involving a fridge. In June 2003, Paul carried a fridge 100 miles from Liverpool and then humped it up to the summit of Snowdon, a height of 1,085 metres.
Then 35 years of age, he completed this effort for Zoe’s place. This was not the first time he had undertaken this journey. He did the same journey complete with fridge 13 years previous to raise funds for the charity “Weston Spirit” which was started by the former Welsh Guardsman, Simon Weston, to assist veterans of the Falklands War.
His brother-in-law who provided the back-up for the 2003 fund raiser commented, “"It sticks out to people, the fridge - it's an unusual thing to be carrying."
The five years Paul spent in the Royal Marines had prepared my brother-in-law for anything. He is enormously strong. He does training in the gym regularly and he walks a lot. He's got two children and they proud as punch of him."
The former Royal Marine averaged 30 miles per day, leaving early each morning.
Paul is not the first person to take a fridge on an unusual journey. Comedian Tony Hawk spent a month travelling around the coast of Ireland with a fridge following a drunken bet. He wrote a book based on the experience, unsurprisingly titled “Round Ireland with a Fridge”.
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