A group of accountants from Tait Walker in Newcastle completed the gruelling 24-hour Three Peaks Challenge raising over £15,000 for charity.
The Newcastle accountants braved the wet summer weather to tackle the challenge. It was part of Tait Walker’s pledge to raise £75,000 for charities in the North East to help mark the firm’s 75th year in business.
This challenge was done in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care and a total of 17 members of staff and friends took part. It marked the half-way stage of a year-long fundraising campaign by the firm, which has so far seen them raise an impressive total of £72,000 for local charities. These charities include St Oswald’s, Tiny Lives and the Great North Air Ambulance.
There were plenty of setbacks during the expedition. While the team was scaling three major mountains in two days, they came across swarms of midges and some of the worst rainfall for 10 years on Snowdon and Ben Nevis. They even had to change their route due to safety, doing Helvellyn rather than Scafell Pike in the Lake District.
“The three peaks was an experience which none of us will forget in a hurry,” said team member Simon Brown.
“We put in a considerable amount of training but none of us realised the full scale of the challenge until we saw the weather conditions we were going to have to contend with.
“At the foot of Mount Snowdon we could see people being airlifted off the top which didn’t help the nerves.
“Despite the lack of sleep, soaking wet clothes and general feelings of exhaustion, the team helped each other through and I think everyone can genuinely say that they have lots of happy memories to take away with them.”
Tait Walker Managing Partner David Arthur, said: “The team should be incredibly proud of themselves.”