A GROUP of men from Reading is taking on the three peaks challenge in just 24 hours, raising money for charity in honour of a late friend.
James Mulligan, George Hunter, George Bunch, and Roy Head will be climbing Ben Nevis, Mt Snowden, and Scafell Pike, all in the space of 24 hours.
They will be joined by a further eight friends, with the group of 12 known as The Bird.
The feat is raising funds for Sarcoma UK, in honour of their late friend Tom Eckles, who passed away in 2015 due to Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.
George Hunter, one of the team, said: “Tom sadly passed away seven years ago, and while we has still alive we all went bald for the charity.
“We raised over £14,000 between the twelve of us, and his dad, Andy, is now an ambassador for the charity.”
“Every year he puts on a walk at the Thames path, from Reading Town Centre, and we finish up in Woolhampton, since there’s a pub there on the river, around a 13-mile walk.”
This year, however, he says that the group wanted to do more.
“We thought this year, let’s go big, and we settled on the Three Peaks, and a friend of mine, James, is going to be turning it onto a documentary.”
As well as the twelve-and-a-half hours it will take to climb all three peaks, the team will also have to travel between them, taking a further eleven-and-a-half hours.
George says that some of the group’s dad’s have volunteered to drive the group, so that the team can rest while travelling from peak to peak.
“The hardest thing at the moment is the training, I didn’t realise how difficult it was going to be.
“It’s a lot more cardio than I’m used to, but between all of us we’ve done practise walks up Snowdon, Ben Nevis, and Scaffell.
“And soon I’ll be going to Snowden when I’ll be going up and down twice in a row to prepare.”
George says that the group was keen to do something that matched what he calls Tom’s “sportsmanlike” mentality.
“He was very active, we played football, and he used to play for Maidenhead Rugby Club,
“Out of the twelve of us, there’s about half who are really active, and out of everyone, he would’ve absolutely been like yeah, let’s do it.
“He just had that sort of character.”
He says also that Tom’s memory helps him to push himself while fundraising: “When you see someone struggling, you just remember why you’re doing this.
“If I’m struggling to do 25 burpees, I think back to how much he must have struggled while he was bedridden.”We’re contributing towards Sarcoma UK, which is such a fantastic charity, and I can’t wait to be able to say that we did it in honour of our friend, Tom.”
The team will be taking on the challenge on Monday, July 25.
For more information, or to donate, visit: www.justgiving.com
