06/07/12….They did it! Emotional finish for three peaks wheelchair challenge

A TEAM of Thame friends and colleagues have successfully completed a gruelling fund-raising challenge to get a wheelchair user and his chair to the top of three mountains in less than 36 hrs.

Nigel Pattison and his team, mostly made up of members of Racquets Fitness Centre, in Thame, encouraged and supported Gaz Houston, also from Thame, up the Three highest peaks in the United Kingdom, to raise money for the Matt Hampson Foundation.

Nigel Patterson has summed up his feelings after his team’s success, in a personal message to them:

“I cannot describe the feeling so I thought I would share a personal message with the rest of the team. I feel this best sums up the size of the challenge.

To the Team

“I really don’t know where to start to express my thanks and gratitude for what you all did this week-end. I was so choked at the end of Snowdon I honestly could not say a word. Yes I did have to wipe a tearful eye. This last week I don’t think I stopped worrying about the week-end.

Why did I ever worry, why did I ever question?

You are the ones who took a silly idea and turned it into reality. You turned the challenge into an achievement.

I was in awe of your strength, endurance and spirit to take on a challenge so unknown! You inspired each other, you supported each other!

It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of a T.E.A.M. “Together Everyone Achieves More”. Wow! Never has this been shown to be the case more?

I hope like me you are finding yourself smiling, giggling and occasionally whincing about some of the week-ends events?

Thank-you all so much and lets re-live those memories soon.”

THE STATS

Journey time to Ben Nevis, 10 hours

Start time 4.31am Saturday

Journey time to climb Ben Nevis 5 hours up then 5 hours down thankfully dry.

Mountain 2 Helvellyn, we had to change from Scaffel Pike as the waterfall section was not passable even without a wheelchair. Difference in height 40 feet. This was started at 8.50pm Saturday so we had an hour of daylight before the head torches took over. This was completed just after midnight, thankfully still dry.

Snowdon the 3rd peak was started at 5.05am Sunday it poured with rain all the way up and down! However with the path being very stable we were able to pull the chair much easier which is why we could climb up and down by 9am.

Total time 28 hours 29 minutes, 7 hours 31 minutes inside the target time and quicker than many complete a normal 3 peaks challenge.

Team members
Nigel Pattison
Gaz Houston – disabled
Martin King
Laura King
Natalie Babington
Nick Babington
Owen Fisher
Jack Shrimpton
Heather Newport
Tom White
Andy Ford
Andrew Stansfield
Keith Crane
Adam Buckland
Nick Mauger – driver

So far, the team has raised over