Thirteen intrepid employees from one of Anglia’s leading housebuilders are on course to raise £10,000 for a local hospice after completing the gruelling Three Peaks Challenge.
The staff from Persimmon Homes Anglia – including managing director Andrew Fuller – set out on the challenge, which wasn’t without incident or injury and resulted in three of the team pulling out midway through the challenge. However the remaining 10 did complete climbs of Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdon to raise the much-needed cash for the East Coast Hospice Charity.
Event co-ordinator Simon Wood, a senior technical manager at Persimmon, said the challenge had been a huge success but had tested the team to the limit.
“To know that we had completed all three climbs gave us all a real sense of achievement, but by the end we were absolutely shattered. It was really hard work and a few of us suffered a bit more than the others, but we all helped each other through and had a real sense of camaraderie.”
The 24-hour challenge saw the team climb Ben Nevis first before tackling Scafell in the Lake District in darkness.
“It was getting on for 11.30pm when we reached the top of Scafell and then it took another couple of hours to come down, so that was a bit different to anything we had done before,” said Simon.
The team finished the challenge on Snowdon and is now busy collecting sponsorship money, he said.
“With gift aid we have already got around £9,000 and will achieve our target of £10,000 when we have rounded up the remaining donations. I would like to thank everybody who has sponsored us because it really kept us going,” added Simon.
The Persimmon team was made up of Simon; managing director Andrew Fuller; Mike Goldney, commercial director; Shaun Marjoram, construction director; Dominic Blake, technical manager; Matthew Wright, technical coordinator; Olly Hurlock, land manager; James Ivory, senior quantity surveyor; Grant Heal, land graduate; Kirstie Beglarian, customer care co-ordinator; Dean Bellamy, Jason Catlin and Adrian Simmonds, all site managers.
The East Coast Hospice Charity is raising cash to build an inpatient hospice combined with a day care centre, close to the A12 between Gorleston and Lowestoft, that will serve all the people of the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area.
Simon said the team had decided to raise the money for the hospice because it was close to Persimmon’s regional base and this is a much needed facility that people on the East Coast urgently need.
“Not only is it a really worthwhile cause but it is one which is local to us. We felt as a group that we wanted to do something to help our community and there could be no better cause than this.”
Simon said the team hoped to hand over a cheque for the final amount later in the year.