A GROUP of eight friends, all originally from Bude, completed the National Three Peaks Challenge earlier this month for Jay’s AIM.

One of those was Sam Ford, who was the fiancée of the late James (Jay) Alexander Osborne who died of a sudden cardiac arrest back in June 2017.

The National Three Peaks Challenge is to walk up and down Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Snowdon (Wales) in less than 24 hours, although ten of those are allocated to driving between them.

Those who took part alongside Sam were Sophie Colwill, Emma Henderson, Rebecca Moore, Rebecca Stanbury, Lizzie Crocker, Lucy Olde and Claire Fry, all school friends at Budehaven.

Sam said: “We all met in Bristol on Friday [July 12] and flew up to Glasgow where we got a hire car and drove to Fort William where Ben Nevis is and stayed at the youth hostel there.

“We started climbing Ben Nevis at 6am on Saturday morning and were up and down in four hours and 26 minutes. Most do it in six [hours], so that gave us a real boost.

“We had two drivers for the challenge and a mountain instructor called Dan. We then drove to Scaffel Pike, which was supposed to take five and a half hours, but due to an accident near Loch Lomond we got directed across Scotland, so it took six and a half.

“But we did Scaffel Pike in three hours, 15 and then drove down to Snowdon in Wales. We started climbing Snowdon at 1.15am and took the hard route up. We managed to do it in four hours, 45 and finished early on Sunday morning at 5.50am.

“You’re given ten hours to do all the drives but it doesn’t actually matter how long it takes. People were driving dangerously trying to drive it as quickly as they can, but that’s just a figure. The main thing to do is do the three peaks in 14 hours but we managed it in just under 12 and a half (12:26).”

Sam admits that they did much better than they could have imagined.

She said: “It exceeded all expectations. We were all worried that we weren’t going to do it in time, some of us had injuries or hurt ourselves doing it but we just kept going, it was amazing really.

“Ben Nevis exceeded expectations. Most people do that in six hours, but because we did it in four and a half (4:26), that gave us all mental strength heading into the other two events. What also helped with them was the scenery being so amazing. We did Scaffel Pike in the sun which was lovely as was coming down Snowdon as the sun rose.

“We all enjoyed it way more than we thought. We mentioned at the end, it felt like we’d accomplished something, and I’m sure we’ll talk about doing something like this again, even if it was really, really tough.”

Sam said it was the perfect chance to raise money for Jay’s AIM.

She said: “Jay was my fiancée and I’m one of the charity’s trustees, so its incredibly close to our hearts.

“We wanted to do it in his memory and for the charity to be able to carry on doing what its doing to raise awareness of cardiac arrest in the young and to get defibrillators out there.”

More than £8,600 has been raised already.

Sam said: “The target was £6,000 but we’ve smashed that, so its way more than we thought. Ideally we’d like it to go towards holding a screening event in Bude.

“CRY [Cardiac Risk in the Young] do screening all over the country, but don’t often come down to the South West. Hopefully we can get an event on early next year.”

If anyone would like to donate to the ladies’ challenge, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/budegirls3peakschallengejays-aim