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If you’re planning on performing an epic stunt or series of stunts for an audience, why not raise some money for charity while you’re at it? A lot of spectators may be willing to dig into their wallets and hand over cash if a daredevil is acting for a good cause.

These high-minded Adrenalists contributed significantly to the greater good in some way while testing their physical limits. Meet seven of the world’s most extreme fundraisers.

Annaleise Carr

Fourteen-year-old Annaleise Carr is hot stuff right now. She just raised $90,000 by becoming the youngest person to swim across Lake Ontario: a 52 km haul. After the 27-hour trial, the goggle-clad Carr cracked a smile as she grabbed the rungs of a ladder leading her out of the clutches of the lake she had just crossed. On her icy, epic overnight journey, Carr faced winds and waves of over a meter. A passing ship whipped up the surface. The teen received food, supplied with a lacrosse stick, and water every hour. Swimming for the childhood cancer support center Camp Trillium, Carr set out to raise $30,000 but wound up tripling that sum. Carr’s hero is extreme sports legend Marilyn Bell, who made the first Lake Ontario crossing in 1954 at the age of 16 and is still in the water and loving it, according to The Star.

Photo Credit: Stay Croc – flickr.com

Stewart Campbell, Steve Kenneford and Alan Milenkovic

In October 2011, ex-servicemen Stewart Campbell and Steve Kenneford and their daredevil colleague Alan Milenkovic braved the challenge of climbing Mount Snowdon as many times as possible in 24 hours. Set 1,085 metres above sea level, Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland. The three adventurers decided to climb to raise funds and awareness for the charity Talking2Minds, which helps people affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. The three-man team grappled with bad weather as they summited Wales’ highest mountain no less than three times. “You could only spend 30 seconds on the summit because of the wind chill factor and the weather was horrific,” Campbell said. Sometimes, he added, visibility sank to zero. Rain poured down. And yet the team said they would do it all over again, and may take on another physical challenge for charity in the near future.

Lloyd Scott

Fundraiser Lloyd Scott is a jack of all trades. He has run the London Marathon dressed as adventurer Indiana Jones, dragon-slayer St. George and children’s TV series character Brian the Snail. Scott has even run an underwater marathon in Loch Ness, Scotland. The former pro soccer player’s finest hour came in 2004 when he cycled a penny farthing across Australia, 2,700 miles from Perth to Sydney, wearing a clunky Sherlock Holmes costume and raised £60,000 for child leukemia sufferers. He received an MBE for his services in 2005, which he said stands for “mad, bonkers and eccentric”.

Martin Strel

Nicknamed the Big River Man, Slovenian marathon swimmer Martin Strel has swum the English Channel, Germany’s Danube, the Mississippi and much of Africa’s Nile, raising an outstanding £500 million for green charities on the way. His most epic exploit may well have been the time he swam the world’s longest, riskiest river: the Amazon. His epic 66-day journey took him 5,268 km, a new long-distance swim Guinness record. In his travels, Strel has tackled everything from crocodiles to bull sharks to stingrays to piranhas. During lunch breaks, the wild man drinks red wine.

Nick Le Souef

For many people, visiting a location that hosts venomous snakes and spiders is a commendable feat. In November 2010,Melbourne resident Nick Le Souef chose to lock himself in a tight space for three weeks with over 300 spiders — all for charity. His creepy roommates included lethally venomous red-backs and disturbingly huge huntsman. Bird-eating spiders and white-tails also made the cut. Le Souef lived, ate and slept in a tiny shop window with his eight-legged companions, raising over $16,000 for children’s charity, Variety. Carnage happened halfway through his vigil when the big members of his temporary family suddenly turned cannibal. Le Souef has a history of spending time with dangerous wildlife, holding Australian records for three-week stints in a shark tank, a snake pit and a cage containing red-back spiders.

Cover Photo Credit: Kyle Taylor – flickr.com

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