It is almost 11 years now since Oscar Garcia saw his Albion side beat Blackburn 3-0 and dedicated the win to Lance Corporal James Brynin.

The Albion fan had been killed while serving in Afghanistan, aged just 22, a few weeks earlier and his family were present at the match.

More than a decade on, the club continue to support James’s father Efrem and his charity StrongMen, which supports bereaved men.

That backing continues as an intrepid group of 20 aim to conquer Kilimanjaro from tomorrow to raise funds and awareness for the charity.

Ages range from 20s to 60s and the expedition promises to be a huge challenge – with tears and laughter along the way.

Efrem said: “We are five years old now as a charity so we wanted to do something to mark that point.

“We have supported well in excess of 700 guys in that time.

“We wanted to mark it doing something that will not just help raise awareness but also raise funds as well.

“With Kilimanjaro, you go through the heat, the jungle and then the cold at the top.

“It is achievable if you have no climbing experience.

“But it is also testing enough. It is the world’s highest free-standing mountain.

“It will be a challenge. We will all be losing our tempers with each other, not sleeping, you’ve got the diet stuff, toilet situation, all of those things you don’t think about.

“After six or seven days living like that, people will throw a strop.

“They are also emotional people at a vulnerable time so we will all be going there with someone particular in mind.

“But that’s what we want. It’s a life experience and that is why we chose it.”

The group will have guides, both local and from the UK, and will be well-prepared.

They plan to reach the summit on October 10 and return on October 14, the day before the anniversary of James’s death.

Efrem said: “I keep myself fairly fit anyway. I have changed my training to do more walking, walking with weight and just walking day after day after day.

“There is not really much preparation you can do because the difficult part is the altitude, and we don’t know what the impact will be.

“It can affect you differently on different days. We went up to an altitude testing centre in London and did some testing and our results were not too bad.

“I’m 52 and it was, ‘You might want to do some nutrition prep and maybe get some breath work in’, which I have been doing.

“Nasal breathing, all that sort of stuff.

“Just trying to work out a little bit about it.

“It should be relatively straightforward until the last couple of days and then it will be horrible.

“Up at midnight, minus ten degrees, just under 6,000 metres and it is very difficult to know what the impact of altitude will be.

“In the last few weeks, someone has contacted StrongMen for support having just lost someone on Kilimanjaro.

“He was a young man coming down, the altitude got to him and he died.

“That focuses the mind a little bit.

“This isn’t just a walk up the South Downs.

“There are 20 of us so I feel quite responsible for all of them as well and I want them to all achieve it.”

Efrem enjoyed the ups and downs of the recent Carabao Cup tie with Wolves when he publicised the Kilimanjaro trip.

He has been thrilled to see the club scale new peaks in the Premier League and in Europe.

But the ongoing support from Albion for StrongMen also means a lot.

He said: “We have been associated with the club since James died, way back in October 2013.

“It seems like a lifetime ago but they have always been great with us.

“Awareness is massive for what we do.

“But to continue to have the James Brynin fan of the season award and to still be doing it more than ten years later, that to us is really touching.

“I can’t thank them enough, they are a great club.”