Go up there - you mast be crazy!
NOT only did Mike Parry have to cope with vertigo 50 feet up a ship's mast - his mate called him a wimp afterwards.
The radio presenter was taking part in a charity climb in Canary Wharf as one of a host of intrepid fundraisers tackling the 130ft challenge on the tall ship Tenacious at South Quay on Sunday (September 23).
Parry, co-host of the Alan Brazil breakfast show on TalkSport Radio, was raising money for heart disease charity the Cardiomyopathy Association. He told The Wharf why he didn't quite manage to make it to the top.
"I wanted to go all the way up but got vertigo at 50 feet," he said. "I just couldn't go any further than the crow's nest even though I was strapped to a harness.
"I was too terrified to let go of the rigging and was literally clinging on for dear life. It only took me six or seven minutes to climb up the mast but it took me about 20 to get down, I was that scared."
Parry revealed Canary Wharf resident Brazil had been mercilessly ribbing him after the climb.
He said: "Brazil called me a wimp and said I had no bottle, but I'd like to have seen him go up there - if they could have found a ship big enough to take his weight."
One consolation, apart from the cash raised for cardiomyopathy research, was that being up the mast meant Parry missed seeing his beloved Everton being beaten by Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
For more information on cardiomyopathy log onto www.cardiomyopathy.org. You can sponsor Parry via the TalkSport website at www.2.talksport.net
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