West Sussex firefighters complete 24 hour three peaks challenge
The team from Lancing took on Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon to raise money for The Fire Fighters Charity.
A team of retained (on-call) firefighters from Lancing Fire Station have successfully completed the Three Peaks Challenge within their 24-hour target.
Firefighters Phil Wattam, Dave Cooke, Kerrie Sutton, Shaun Steadman and Darryl Clement took on the gruelling challenge on Friday morning, and over the next 24 hours they scaled the three highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales.
They began at Ben Nevis in Scotland on Friday morning, where they took on the 1,345m trek to the summit. They then had a six hour drive to recover as they headed south to Scafell Pike in northern England where they reached the top of the 978m peak, before driving five hours to Mount Snowdon in Wales to take on the 1,085m hike to the summit.
Pushing themselves, they managed to complete their challenge within their 24 hour limit.
The retained firefighters, who all have full time jobs elsewhere, but live or work within a few minutes of the fire station and can be mobilised at a moment’s notice, were exceptionally busy in the run up to the event fitting training sessions into their already busy days.
Firefighter Phil Wattam said:
“No matter how much training you put into an event like this, nothing can really prepare you for the physical and mental challenges that you face, pushing on through the pain to make it to the top. But we worked together as a team and we all spurred each other on, which is what it is all about.
“We are so grateful to everyone who sent us a message of support or donated towards our fundraising total for The Fire Fighters Charity. Raising more than half our total before we left was really inspiring and geared us up for the challenge ahead. But to see the total going up as we progressed our way through the 24 hours really gave us the boost we needed to keep on going and complete the challenge within our time goal.
“The work that The Fire Fighters Charity carries out is so important, and we hope that our little fundraiser will allow them to continue to carry out their fantastic work supporting serving and former firefighters, as well as their families.”
So far they've raised £2,000. You can support the team’s fundraising efforts here.