Man sings karaoke for 27 hours in tribute to friend

A man has completed a challenge to sing karaoke for 27 hours straight in honour of his best friend, who died from cancer.

Jim Thompson, 49, from Harlow, Essex, live streamed the event at the Harlow Playhouse, charging £27 per song request, or £270 for businesses to sponsor for an hour.

"I was alright, and then I hit 24 hours, it was like my body just kind of went, what on earth are you doing?"

He said he did lots of research on how to prepare for the vocal marathon - which meant cutting out caffeine, sugar and dairy.

"I didn't have any sort of stimulants or anything to be able to keep me awake.

"I was like, 'nope, I can't have any sugar, because that'll just affect my tongue, I'll be stumbling over my words'."

Mr Thompson, originally from Gateshead near Newcastle, said he relied on water, herbal tea and coconut water.

His own rules dictated that he had to be part of every song, but for a couple of hours he would start a duet then let his partner finish.

Before he died last year, Kyle Jaggers was receiving care for his stage four cancer.

Mr Thompson said: "Within the first month of him being at St Clare Hospice, he was like, 'when I'm better, I'm going to raise so much money for these guys because they are absolutely amazing' and on his passing I vowed that he would still raise money for St Clare Hospice but I would do it in his name."

He said he plucked the 27-hour timeframe from a previous challenge Kyle took on where he walked from Harlow to Brighton.

"He was literally the fittest man I knew, which is why it was so devastating as well what happened to him.

"I was like, 'right, what can I do? I'm a performer, all right, let's perform, let's see what I can do'."

Mr Thompson raised £7,000 but is determined to hit £27,000 through more challenges.

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