Tom Cruise surprises the Briton who raised funds for charity through extreme challenges

American actor Tom Cruise has surprised a Briton who spent a year completing a series of difficult sporting challenges to raise funds for charity, AP reported.

Lloyd Kembrey, a facilities manager at the University of Bristol, undertook the challenges to raise funds for “Jessie May”, a charity that provides support for children in need of palliative care at home.

Kembrey’s initiative was linked to the story of his twin cousins, Francesca and Josephine, who were diagnosed with Sanfilippo syndrome type A, a life-limiting disease, when they were three and a half years old. Both died during their teenage years.

To honour their memory and to support other families facing similar situations, Kembrey undertook a series of physical endurance challenges.

His challenges included a 31-mile (about 50-kilometre) ultramarathon on ice skates in Finland, climbing an artificial wall to a height equal to that of Mount Everest, and a 94-mile (about 151-kilometre) walk along the Jurassic Coast in southern England.

To mark the completion of the challenges, Kembrey’s family worked with the team of the BBC programme “The One Show” and its “One Big Thank You” initiative to organise a surprise for him.

Kembrey was invited to London on the pretext that he would take part in an interview for a documentary about extreme challenges and endurance sports.

But instead of the usual interview, Tom Cruise walked into the room, having come to thank him personally for his fundraising efforts.

After the meeting, Kembrey attended the premiere of the film “Digger” together with a friend, where he also met other actors, including John Goodman, Riz Ahmed and Jesse Plemons.

The former chief executive of Jessie May, Daniel Cheesman, praised Kembrey’s contribution, stressing that the funds he raised help the charity support children directly in their homes.