He has spent more than 560 nights in a tent raising money for terminally ill patients but as Max stepped on to the stage to collect his Pride of Britain award he had no idea that he would be sleeping in a very special place that night.
The 12-year-old started sleeping in his back garden in March 2020 after his terminally ill next-door-neighbour Rick Abbott gave him the tent, to raise money for the hospice which had cared for him in his final weeks.
Initially aiming to do it until the end of the first lockdown, Max decided to keep going, braving sub-zero frost, heatwaves and even Storm Bella – and has so far raised more than £640,000.
After receiving his Spirit of Adventure award from TV survival expert Bear Grylls the teenager, who has vowed to keep up the challenge indefinitely, revealed he had pitched his tent on his hotel balcony last night because he “can’t remember what it’s like to sleep in a bed”.
But to his shock the rugby-mad teen, from North Devon, discovered the tent was no longer in the hotel but on the pitch of Twickenham Stadium.
Ashley Banjo’s brother Jordan whisked Max and his dad out of the ceremony to the stadium, where they were later seen settling in inside their sleeping bags under the floodlights.
After he’d left, Bear said that Max “never set out to be a hero. He set out to raise £100 for a little hospice. He has raised £600,000 and changed not just that hospice’s future but so many others.
“He’s a true hero, he’s gone above and beyond, through the cold and storms. He’s super-positive.”
