A GROUP of retained firefighters have raised almost £5,000 for charity after taking on the gruelling Three Peaks Challenge.

The men, from the Chilham station, raised £4,800 after climbing Britain’s highest mountains within 24 hours.

A total £2,000 of the amount raised has now been presented to Kent Air Ambulance and the rest has gone to the National Fire Service Benevolent Fund.

One of the group, Paul O’Shea, said: “Most of the money came from donations in Chilham and we were surprised to get so much because it is such a small place.

“The challenge was obviously hard going but we did a lot of training for it.”

The Three Peaks Challenge involves climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Snowdon in Wales.

The other four walkers were Sid Castle, Peter Vogel, Danny Bushell and Chris Logsdon.

The challenge involved almost 14 hours of walking and 10 hours of being driven between the mountains, snatching sleep on the coach.

The team’s support crew, responsible for driving and food preparation, were station officer Geoff Bishop and crew manage Dave Cawdrow.

The eighth member of the station, Kevin Sprott, trained for the event and bought equipment for it but ended up too unwell to take part.