Exeter firms peak at £11,000 for charity

Teams from the Exeter offices of chartered accountants Francis Clark, Barclays Bank, Ashford’s Solicitors and property specialists ES Group put their fitness and stamina to the test to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon (the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales) within 24 hours, collectively raising over £12,000 for charity.

Francis Clark partner Glenn Nicol said: “It has given us all a great sense of achievement and we’d like to thank everyone who has supported us and our fund-raising efforts.  Francis Clark’s chosen charity was Devon Air Ambulance Trust and so far we’ve managed to raise over £3,700 with money still coming in. The other teams have also done fantastically well.

“We were delighted with our climbing times achieving all three peaks in 11.5 hours, well within our schedule, but with 15 team members crammed into a 17-seater minibus with a 62mph speed limiter, the journey between climbs ate up any spare time we had.”
Other charities to benefit include Children's Hospice South West, Calvert Trust Exmoor and Help for Heroes.

Ashfords partner Chris Gregson said: “The excellent dry weather helped but it was a great achievement to get the whole team of 13 walkers up and down all three peaks within 24 hours as several had never attempted anything like this before. The four excellent charities we were supporting really motivated us all to push on".

Gary Hooper, Associate at ES Group’s Exeter office said: “We are all thrilled to have completed such a demanding challenge and even more so to have raised funds for such a worthy cause. The experience was fantastic, with unrivalled views and scenery and a truly wonderful team spirit to match. We were all back in work on the Monday morning and despite aching limbs we are already looking forward to planning more opportunities to support Children’s Hospice South West in the future.”

The teams include Sean Grinsted, Glenn Nicol and  Mike Pearce (Francis Clark); Gary Hooper, Philip Gibson, Jason Hall and Matthew Hartley (ES); Steve Hocking, Stephen Beard and Nigel Brown (Barclays) and Chris Gregson, Carol Gaskell and Phil Strange (Ashfords). Graham Austin and Rob Allum from Barclays, drove the teams during the challenge.