Grantham friends tackle ‘awful’ weather conditions in three peaks challenge to raise money for St Barnabas Hospice

Five Grantham friends have taken nearly 11 hours to complete a three peaks challenge at the weekend for charity.

On Saturday (October 7) Joe Hardy, Lee McCann, Ashley Preston, Stu Hopkins and Simon Hall, all from Grantham, tackled “awful” weather conditions to complete the challenge in Yorkshire to raise money for St Barnabas Hospice.

Lee said it was the “hardest thing I’ve ever had to do”.

He added: “The conditions were awful, 60mph winds and torrential rain for the whole time pretty much.

“Climbing Pen-y-ghant, the last section, was a near vertical rocky face, which became almost like a waterfall because of the rain at the summit, so it was incredibly precarious to scramble up.

“For me, I am deaf so due to the weather I couldn’t wear my hearing aid.

“As a result, I was locked inside my own head with my own thoughts and no conversation or music for the whole 11 hours.

“I felt incredibly isolated but we had each other's backs and we got around as a team.”

With an original target of £1,000, the friends have now raised over £1,600 with money from its JustGiving page and cash collected.

Lee added: “It was amazing to raise over £1,500 for the hospice.

“I just kept saying to the boys on the walk that no matter how much pain you’re in or how tired you feel, there’s people in a lot worse situations than us, so we need to get it done!”

Money is still being raised via their Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/page/leeyorkshire3peaks.

Money is being collected until tomorrow (Tuesday).