Wolverhampton friends raise £10,000 overall for two charities through Ben Nevis climb
Eight friends from Wolverhampton have raised more than £10,000 combined for two charities after taking on a mammoth trek to the top of Ben Nevis.
Hardev Kang, Josh Doyle-Gibbons, Aneil Mehta, James Winwood, Ricky Mehta, Bhadar Sandhur, Kieran Mehta and Suneil Pawar all set off on Saturday.
And they all managed to make it up the 4,413ft mountain in aid of Cancer Research UK and Compton Care – having been inspired by friends and family.
Mr Pawar said: "We did it for two charities, Compton Care and Cancer Research UK. Compton Care, it's a local charity and we know people who've had end of life care so that was a pretty easy one for us.
"What happened with Cancer Research UK, it was the 20-year anniversary of my uncle's death and one of my friend's got diagnosed with cancer as well. The whole challenge just happened with a conversation and we were talking about Mount Kilimanjaro was the original choice, but we thought we would try this one."
It was an eight hour drive to Fort William and the friends thought they would have a "jolly on the way" – but it was far from it, with the team shattered by the time they arrived at the Scottish town.
The friends woke up at 5am to take on the mammoth challenge, drove up to the car park in the wake of the mountain and then soldiered on – using items they had picked up at the local supermarket.
"It was probably the toughest thing that we've all done, it took us approximately five hours to the top although we stopped off regularly along the way," Mr Pawar said.
"We went through every single weather forecast we could've got, we had nice and sunny weather at the bottom, more misty and damp as we went up, and at the top it was full of snow which was beautiful."
A total of £4,465 has been raised for Compton Care with the friends expecting the sum to surpass £5,000, whilst a further £6,215 has been raised for Cancer Research UK – with the both of them having a £3,000 target initially.
The 38-year-old, from Finchfield, said: "Obviously, we sort of carried each other along whilst we were doing it. It's really tiring and it's extremely challenging, but we encouraged each other and at the top the views were absolutely amazing."
Mr Pawar said he, and others, had a drink out of whisky out of a hip flask when they reached the top for those they were completing the challenge for.
Visit justgiving.com/fundraising/climbforcomptoncare or justgiving.com/fundraising/benneviscancerresearch to donate.
