Friday, October 2, 2026 - Tom Cruise has surprised British fundraiser Lloyd Kembrey after he spent a year completing a series of extreme sporting challenges to raise money for children’s hospice charity Jessie May.
Kembrey, a facilities manager at the University of Bristol, took on the challenges to honour the memory of his twin cousins, Francesca and Josephine, who were diagnosed with Sanfilippo disease type A as young children and later died in their teens.
Kembrey’s fundraising efforts included a 31-mile ice-skating ultramarathon in Finland, climbing the equivalent height of Mount Everest on a climbing wall and completing a 94-mile hike along southern England’s Jurassic Coast.
His family worked with BBC’s The One Show and its One Big Thank You programme to recognise his extraordinary commitment. Believing he was attending an interview for a documentary about extreme challenges, Kembrey was instead greeted by Cruise.
Cruise personally thanked Kembrey for his fundraising achievements, telling him that after hearing about his adventure, he knew he had to meet him. Kembrey was also invited to the royal film performance and world premiere of Cruise’s new film Digger.
His fundraising has helped Jessie May support children in their own homes, with former chief executive Daniel Cheesman describing Kembrey as a role model for the children and young people supported by the charity.
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