CAMBRIDGE: Staff from Ridgeons’ branches across the region are getting ready to take on the National Three Peaks Challenge this June, to raise money for three worthy charities in honour of their friend and colleague, James Carr.
Mr Carr, who was branch manager at Ridgeons’ Cambridge branch in Nuffield Road, lost his battle with cancer in October 2011 at the age of 47. He began his merchanting career back in 1984 with Travis Perkins, before moving to Ridgeons in 1999. His wife, Jane Carr, will be joining staff for the challenge in memory of her late husband.
The National Three Peaks Challenge takes place in the last weekend of June and involves walking the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales all within 24 hours. Staff will be raising funds for three charities chosen by James' family, which include Cancer Research UK, Crohns & Colitis UK and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT), which is the chosen charity of Ridgeons.
Gary Robertson, from the Cromwell Road branch in Cambridge, said: “Our reason for taking on this challenge is to honour the memory of our friend and colleague, James Carr. James was genuinely a wonderful person, one of life's true gentlemen. We are extremely pleased to be joined on our challenge by Jane Carr and encourage the public to dig deep to help our team raise as much as possible for these very worthy charities. We thank everyone in advance for their kind donations.
“Sadly since this challenge was planned we have lost another friend and colleague to cancer, Ron Bentley, who passed away in January 2012. Therefore, we would also like to honour him in this challenge.”
The Ridgeons team consists of Jane Carr and staff from Ridgeons’ branches across the region including: Tony Howe, Alistair Brace, Gary Robertson, Hugh Guntrip, Martin Hurrell, Ben Giddings, Rebecca Mason, Rachel Gardner, Chrissie Hunter and Bill Codd. The drivers will include Ewan Hunter and Bob Butler, both from Ridgeons. The team has already seen tremendous kindness from various companies, including easyJet who donated the flights from Luton to Inverness and from Orwell Trucks of Ipswich who have donated the use of a 17 seat Mercedes minibus.
The team has already been training hard at weekends, including a whole team training weekend in Snowdon, where they climbed the mountain on both days.
