SNAKE DUDE

A Sussex carpenter is hoping to earn a place in the record books by spending nearly four months in a room with some of the world's most venomous snakes. David Jones, 44, of Crawley, is due to fly to Johannesburg later to
see the room he will be sharing with 40 snakes. His room-mates will include deadly puff adders, snouted cobras,
boomslangs, green mambas and black mambas. The 121-day challenge is to begin on 24 April. The current record is held by South African Martin Smit.

Mr Smit, also known as Mad Martin, spent 113 days in a room with snakes without being bitten. Mr Jones, whose wife is scared of snakes, said the last person to attempt the record did so in 2009 and was bitten by a puff adder and narrowly avoided having to have part of his leg amputated. He said: "I have always been interested in snakes and I thought now is the time to do something slightly out of the ordinary in my life, so I though this was a challenge that I wanted to do.

"I'm not terrified - concerned, yes, for a lot of reasons. Not just the fact they are venomous snakes and there is a very real possibility of ending up in hospital, I'm also leaving a wife, I'm leaving a son and I'm leaving my family for four and a half months."

Mr Jones is using the challenge to raise money for St Catherine's Hospice in Crawley.


__._,_.___