The hugely popular Catlin End-to-End is fast approaching — but there is still time to sign up.

The event, in which entrants walk, run, swim, cycle and even paddleboard from East to West, has raised more than $4.8 million for Bermuda charities since 1988.

This year Catlin has chosen four charities to be supported — Family Centre, Friends of Hospice, the Eliza DoLittle Society and YouthNet.

Entrants include extreme athlete Alex Hammond, who has taken part in some of the most challenging fitness events in the world, including a double Ironman, a 250-kilometre trail through Costa Rica, and a speed ascent of Kilimanjaro.

He has just completed the Ultra Fjord in Patagonia, running a 70km trail through ice cold fjords, knee and thigh-high peat bogs, glaciers and crevices.

He told The Royal Gazette: “It’s the hardest race anyone has ever run.” he said.

“We had ultra champions racing elites who had been racing for 17 years and they say it was the most difficult race they had ever entered and there was a 60 per cent dropout rate.”

After all that, End-to-End might seem a little tame — but Mr Hammond makes it even more challenging.

In 2011 the architect mounted his bicycle and covered six End-to-Ends in one before hopping off and running a half-marathon.

Starting at 2am, he covered 165 miles and finished at about 3pm.

“I have just got back from the ultra run so I am backing off on difficulty level. I’ve still not decided what I will do for this End-to-End but I think I am going to run it,” he said.

Last year, Bermudian Aideen Ratteray was the top individual fundraiser, without matching funds, raising $3,760. The money went towards the Centre Against Abuse and Friends of Hospice.

Mrs Ratteray, director for the Department of Planning, said that believing in the causes she chose to support, as well as staying active on social media, helped her to raise the funds.

“I personalised my fundraising page, I put my photo online as well as links on my Facebook, Twitter and LinkdIn pages,” she said.

“I made it clear that I believed in the work the causes did. It’s important to give people an indication of why you want to raise money for the charities and to keep people abreast of the progress that you are making.

“A lot of people in Bermuda can do things at the last minute so, closer to the event, I put messages out saying I need to raise the rest of the money, please make your donation.”

Anna Stone is one of a group of nine people coming from the UK to take part in the End-to-End, the last of three sponsored walks. Ms Stone and a few others also took part in Around the Island walks in Jersey and Guernsey.

Bermuda was the last on the list of locations, with sponsorship from Itex.

Ms Stone said: “None of us have ever been to Bermuda. We always said we should come back and do the third one. When we started talking about it a few other friends got interested and so now we have nine of us.”

Two members of the group will be raising money for charity — Margaret Beale for the National Association of Crohns and Colitis, and Ms Stone for the Laura Crane Trust.

“It’s the only UK charity that raises money specifically for teenagers and young adults with cancer,” Ms Stone said. “It’s a time in your life that if you get cancer it can be very aggressive and it is very rare and so there is less support around it.

“Laura was a friend of mine and she lost her battle with cancer when she was 17.”

• The Catlin End-to-End, sponsored by The Royal Gazette, is on Saturday. You can register online at www.bermudaendtoend.bm