FOUR school friends walked 27 miles and climbed 9,800ft up Britain's three tallest mountains in memory of their close friend and brother who died aged 23.
Carlton Brailey, Nikki Earl, Lisa Williamson and Peter Whyton, all aged 41, scaled the tallest mountain in England, Scotland and Wales in just 27 hours to raise £8,650 for The J's Hospice, as well as £3,500 for cancer charity Clic Sargent.
They flew to Glasgow on August 15, then headed to Fort William to stay overnight in a hostel, before travelling to Ben Nevis at 4am and then going on to Scafell Pike in Cumbria, and Snowdon in North Wales.
"It was so much harder than we expected it to be, the weather was extreme, the physical side of it was massive," said Mr Brailey, an IT consultant from Chelmsford, who climbed in memory of his brother Chris, who died suddenly in 1999.
"I wore a heart monitor and burned 11,564 calories in 27 hours, which shows how physically draining it was."
All four went to John Bramston School, in Witham, now New Rickstones Academy.
But in 1989, when they were 17, Carlton's older brother, Chris, who was born with cystic fibrosis, died suddenly at the age of 23.
"We all looked up to my brother Chris, we were all affected by his death," said Carlton, who now lives in Springfield.
"He'd just had a heart and lung transplant and had gone from being in a wheelchair to being able to go jogging with me two-and-a-half weeks later, so it was devastating for my family when he died.
"His death had such a big impact on my life, so I felt I had to do something."
Carlton became involved with The J's Hospice in 2009 when he discovered it cares for young adults, an age bracket that was not catered for at the time of his brother's illness.
"Chris was too old to be on a children's hospice, but was too young to go into a traditional adult's hospice, so my family had to do everything for him," he added.
"Now there's so much more support than we got and as The J's Hospice look after people with cystic fibrosis I wanted to help out.
"I sponsor some of the J's events, including their Christmas ball, and at the last one the four of us got together and decided to do something challenging to raise money."
