A WRESTLER who was just minutes from death as a baby with meningitis returned to his home town of Cirencester at the weekend for his family-friendly wrestling festival, raising more than £600 for Stroud charity Meningitis Now.

Over 100 local wrestling fans turned up at Cirencester Deer Park on Saturday for an afternoon of entertainment.

The CWF5 was the fifth annual charity event put on by Cirencester Wrestling Federation and is a very personal fundraiser for organiser and wrestler Darren "The Thundercat" Brown.

Darren, 39, from Swindon was born in Cirencester and lived in Siddington. He said: "I had Meningitis when I was just months old and I was minutes from death. Thankfully I kept all my limbs although I had the worst kind (meningococcal)."

For the past five years he has been helping to fight the disease with this fundraising Cirencester wresting festival.

He said: "As I was one of the lucky ones, and I know plenty of people who have lost loved ones through meningitis, I have always wanted to do something for the charity and as I love wrestling so much I combined the two and now I get to entertain Cirencester with an afternoon of what I love and raise money for Meningitis Now all at the same time."

The Thundercat was one of several wrestlers competing on the day and did not disappoint fans, beating Sleeves the Butler in CWF record time of five seconds. In the I Quit Match, Darren Brown "The Thundercat" also beat The Foxcatcher with World Of Sport Legend Scrubber Daly and Sleeves The Butler.

Other success stories were The Don who claimed victory over Danny Owens to become the new CWF heavyweight champion.

Bully Boy Carter beat Logan to be named the new CWF Corinium Champion, Jesse Sapphire beat Hayley Quinn and Bacardi to become the new CWF women's champion and the new CWF Tag Team Champions were The UK Freebird.

Cirencester wrestler Cue Ball beat Spidermask in an open challenge match. Cue Ball (Jack Purser) paid particular attention to his entrance music, posting on a Facebook page for national musicians asking for submissions for music he could use. From over 300 entries, he chose Shadow and Noise, a song by False Flags, who by happy coincidence are a local Stroud band.

Speaking after the event Darren Brown said: "Cirencester Wrestling Federation is a family friendly wrestling show that donates all the proceeds to Stroud based charity Meningitis Now.

"This year was our fifth show and they get bigger and better every time. This weekend's CWF5 was no different with over 100 fans enjoying the action at Deer Park School.

"CWF will be back in 2019 with two shows planned and hopefully making more money for the great charity."

Visit Cirencester Wrestling Federation on Facebook for more information.