8:30am Friday 27th August 2010
By Claire Marshall
A TRIO of novice hikers scaled three of the UK’s highest mountains in 24 hours to raise money for charity.
Paddy Doyle, of Berkeley, and his two friends, former Berkeley resident Wendy Mansell and Rob Beard, his boss at Parcel Point in Bristol, completed the Three Peaks Challenge.
They had been training for six months to be ready for the event in which they climbed Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, Britain’s tallest mountain, in 23 hours 31 minutes with the help of their driver, Paddy’s brother Dominic.
Paddy was raising money for both Fight for Sight, because the son of a close friend is visually impaired, and Help for Heroes, as Rob is an ex-marine.
Meanwhile Wendy, now living in London, was raising money for Meningitis UK in memory of her nephew Sam Virgo, of Berkeley, who died from the disease aged three.
The friends battled through the challenge despite heavy cloud on Scafell Pike that caused them to get lost, illness and fatigue.
"I was very tired before we even started because I couldn’t sleep a few days before the event," said Paddy, 48.
"On top of that both myself and Wendy had a stomach bug during the event and I was sick at one point."
But Paddy said that having seen a memorial for commandos in Scotland before they began the challenge he felt spurred on to do it in memory of all those servicemen who have died in conflict.
"You just carry on because you have to," he said. "At times you just feel like you want to give up, but you just keep pushing yourself.
"It was an amazing sense of achievement at the end, I was very emotional because it was the culmination of months of hard work and organising."
To donate to Paddy’s charities either go to www.justgiving.com/paddy-doyle to give money to Fight for Sight or www.justgiving.com/paddy-doyle-h4h for Help for Heroes. There is also a collection box in Berkeley Pharmacy.
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