Macmillan Nurses & Jark's 3 peak challenge

Macmillan Nurses benefit from Norfolk teams 3 peak challenge.

Richard Morrissey, a Director of the Industrial division of Jark Recruitment, based in Dereham, has successfully completed the 3 peaks challenge for charity together with a team of 14 and raised over £4,000 for the Macmillan Nurses Fund.

The team took on the challenge of climbing Ben Nevis, ScaFell and Snowdonia, the three tallest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales, in just over 24 hours.

The challenge started in Scotland at 8am on Saturday 23rd July at the base of Ben Nevis standing at 4,408 ft, Ben Nevis took the team just 3 hours to climb and 2 hours to descend. A seven-hour drive followed as the climbers set off for ScaFell in Wales, where the 3,205 ft peak awaited. The team managed to climb up and down ScaFell in three hours 50 minutes with the descent made by torchlight. By the time they reached the bottom at 12.15 am on Sunday morning, they were ready for a well-needed rest. The team managed to catch four hours (disturbed!) sleep as they travelled through the night to arrive at their final challenge at Snowdonia.

The Welsh peak took two hours 15 minutes to climb and under two hours to descend for 13 of the group, while the remaining two decided to run up and down the 3,560 ft of Snowdonia! In total, 1,270 miles were driven between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon, 11,173 feet climbed, 72 bottles of Lucozade drunk and 60 bananas eaten!

Richard Morrissey describes what it was like to take part in such a physically demanding challenge: “The whole team really wanted to complete the challenge in under 24 hours, five of the 15 climbers made it in 24 hours but with heavy traffic, a broken down minibus, injured team members and four hours unbroken sleep, it was unfortunately not to be for everyone. However, as a team, we only missed our target by one hour and five minutes, which is still a fantastic feat.”

“Snowdonia was the most gruelling challenge we faced, with 60 mph winds and the whole climb completed in thick fog. Morale and motivation was pushed to the limits as people suffered fatigue, tiredness, dehydration and extremely sore feet and legs. However team spirit and the determination to succeed ensured everyone completed the task.”

“We are thrilled with the sponsorship raised. Money is still coming in but we estimate the final total will be between £4,000 and £5,000 going to the Macmillan Nurses Fund. The challenge was completed in the memory of my father in-law who we lost to cancer last year and we hope the money raised will help the nurses continue with the fantastic care they give to patients every day of the year. We would like to thank everyone who sponsored us and we are looking forward to planning a new challenge next year, after a bit of recuperation of course!”

Sponsorship is still being collected for Richard and the team’s 3 peaks challenge. If you would like to add to the funds already collected for the Macmillan Nurses Fund, please make cheques payable to Macmillan Nurses Fund: c/o Richard Morrissey, JARK Recruitment Ltd, Beechurst, Commercial Road, Dereham, Norfolk, NR19 1AE.

Thursday 29 June 2006

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