A GROUP of eight friends will be climbing the three largest mountains in Britain next month to raise funds for the final phase of their church’s major refurbishment.
The group from Uttoxeter Methodist Church will be sharing the money raised between the fund for the High Street building and charity Help For Heroes due to it being close to the heart of one of the friends.
Matthew Baxter is a serving member of the RAF and is likely to be heading out to Afghanistan later this year.
He is being joined by seven friends from the Methodist Church who will be tackling the National Three Peaks Challenge on July 2 and 3 scaling the heights of Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell Pike.
One of the members James Twynham told the Advertiser why they are keen to raise funds for both the church building and Help for Heroes.
He said: “We have had a lot of development done at the church which includes a building put up at the back but the final phase is to modernise the existing church building.
“We are about £19,000 short of that target so we got together after a service one day and it was suggested that we do the Three Peaks Challenge.
“With Matthew a serving member of the RAF the team are also keen to support Help for Heroes in recognition of the fantastic work done by our armed services across the world.
“Regardless of whether Matt was in the RAF or not we would still have wanted to raise money for that charity.” The work being carried out at the Methodist church is being completed by MJ Barrett Construction and has seen the school rooms to the rear of the Grade II listed building demolished to make way for a modern meeting room with disabled access and better facilities.
The church is hoping these facilities will be well used by the local community and £250,000 has already been spent on the project which has been funded via fund-raising and donations over a 10-year period with work beginning last September.
Speaking about the challenge Mr Twynham, 35, said: “We are very much looking forward to it. We are nervous but pretty confident that we can do it.
“It’s been in the planning for about a year so we have been training and have climbed both Snowdon and Scafell Pike in differing weather conditions so we are confident we can take whatever is thrown our way.”
Anyone wishing to donate and support the team and the two good causes can telephone Mr Twynham on 07960 014696 or visit the teams Facebook page UMC Three Peaks Challenge.
