A TEAM of sponsored climbers from a York insurance firm who found themselves having three summit meetings in two days, today learned they had earned £2,500 for the British Heart Foundation.

Mark Deere, marketing director of DE Fords Insurance Brokers Ltd of Poppleton Grange, Low Poppleton Lane, led a team of seven to the peaks of Ben Nevis (4,409 ft), Scafell Pike (3,206 ft) and Snowdon (3,560 ft) as part of the UK's Biggest Mountain Challenge.

Mr Deere, an experienced walker and climber, was moved to organise the climbs in memory of his friend, Greta Brown, who died from a heart attack in her home village of Carlton in the Dales.

He said: "The ambulance took 45 minutes to get there due to the distance it had to travel. I'm not suggesting that her life could have been saved but it did prompt the question of having more local access to a heart defibrillator."

His team consisted of Michael Shaw, Jon Smithson, Claire Halstead, Andrew Taylor, Lucie Aston and David Wigley.