South Tyneside physios take on Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge for Great North Air Ambulance

The five physios Alice Hadley, Ellie Hawkyard, Laura Graham, Matty Robson and Ryan Laverty, who all work at South Tyneside District Hospital, took part in the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge on August 31.

Coming up against rain, hail and wind, the group covered 29 miles on the day, completing three peaks Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough within 11 hours and 40 minutes.

They have so far raised more than £1,450 for the charity, after Ellie came up with the idea to to organise their own fundraising challenge.

“We often try to do team events and we’re all pretty active, but we’ve never done an endurance challenge like this before,” explained Alice, who lives in Sunderland.

“We settled on the Great North Air Ambulance, partly influenced by where we work, but mainly because it’s an amazing service which is all charity funded and there’s a lot of people who have been touched by it.”

The 39-year-old continued: “It is close to us all, especially as it turns out that the family of someone we work with were actually rescued on Bank Holiday.”

Despite setting off in clear conditions and reaching the top of Pen-y-Ghent by 8am, the weather worsened and the group came up against rain, wind and hail storms as the day went on.

Low cloud and poor visibility meant they were unable to enjoy the views from the tops, but it hasn’t put them off future endeavours.

“The weather was horrendous but we kept each other’s spirits up,” said Alice.

“We would love to do it again, especially when we were doing it for such a good cause

“We’re definitely looking to do something like this next year. We’re keen to do the UK three peaks in 12 hours next.”

Alice added: “We are all very proud of what we have achieved together, not only in the money we raised but in the miles we covered.

“We could not have done it without the support of each other and all those who sponsored us.”