A group of Rochdale postmen who have recently been climbing mountains to raise money played a charity football match in an inter delivery office clash on Sunday (7 August).
The group of postal workers set themselves the task of climbing ten mountains in the space of a few months back in April this year, and have now raised over £3,000 of their £5,000 fundraising target after the charity match at Heywood Sports Village, with only Snowden and Ben Nevis left to climb.
The leader of the Royal Mail and CWU Rochdale ten peak challenge, Mick Stewart, spoke about the match: “It was Rochdale delivery office against Bury delivery office. It was a brilliant day and a really enjoyable game, even though we lost 5-4 on penalties after a 3-3 draw. We had a great turnout of people that came to watch from both offices as well.”
Mick said the idea of climbing mountains originated from a group of co-workers trying to live more healthily: “It was me and another lad who set up a diet group and we had a competition against some of the managers to see who could do better. It was like a snowball effect and at one point someone said ‘why don’t we start climbing mountains?’
“The first three we climbed – Pen-y-ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside - were part of the Yorkshire three peak challenge and were all about 700m high. Each time we go up in size and our next one is Snowden on 14 August which is about 1,100m.
“We’ve been getting between 18 to 25 people on each walk. On 17 July we did Striding Edge at Helvellyn which was quite dangerous but a good walk.”
The money is being raised for the Stroke Association, Royal Mail’s charity of the year, and the CWU Humanitarian Aid, the co-workers’ union charity.
After the final ascent of Ben Nevis on 28 August, there will be a celebration of the fundraising efforts at the Wellfield Club on Prince Street on 17 September. Raffle prizes, which include an iPad air and two bottles of wine donated by the landlord of the Grapes’ Pub, Norden Road, will be drawn at the event with tickets priced at £3 each.
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