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ELATED adventurer Barney Franklin is celebrating an amazing double success.

Not only did the 33-year-old ex-paratrooper win a gruelling race from Canada to the magnetic north pole in aid of St Rose's School.

But halfway through the 350 mile Polar Challenge, he became a father when his son Joshua arrived three weeks early.

"It was amazing," said Barney, whose foster brother Harley Ashley, 18, has attended the school for 12 years.

"The dream was to cross the finish line first, but to actually do it was incredible.

"What I need now is to get lots of sleep, but with a baby in the house that's not something I'm going to get."

Barney, a sports teacher at Acorn School, Nailsworth, set off on April 21 with friends Steve Napier, 37, and Giles Greenslade, 34.

His team - Best Served Chilled - walked for 15 hours a day in temperatures of minus 40 degrees, burning 9,000 calories a day.

"At times I was thinking 'you can't be doing this'," he said.

"When you are walking, you get warm and as soon as you stop, within two minutes, you get cold."

Then on race day four - April 24 - Barney was told in a routine call to camp that his partner Andreia Tinte had given birth three weeks early.

"We broke open the emergency supply of jelly babies and we had a bottle of whiskey we were saving for the finish line," he said.

"It was an incentive to finish the race."

The final 29 mile push to the finish line started at 12am and finished at 12.15pm the next day.

Best Served Chilled was the first of nine teams to cross the line, finishing in nine days, 18 hours and 15 minutes.

Barney, who had lost 1.5 stone on the challenge, returned home to Hill Paul, Stroud on May 8.

He said he wanted to thank his family for supporting his partner Andreia in the birth.

Andreia, 26, said: "I'm very proud of him.

"It was really emotional with everything that was going on at home.

"He was even more nervous going up the stairs to see the baby than when he was at the start line."

Barney has already raised £3,000 through school fundraisers and running the Stroud Half Marathon in a polar bear suit His target is £4,000.

To donate to Barney, email him on polarbarney@yahoo.co.uk or visit http://www.bestservedchilled.net.

4:00pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

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