ELEVEN work colleagues proved their team spirit by completing the daunting Three Peaks Challenge in under 24 hours.

Simon Bradshaw from March, Fred Hornigold from Tilney St Lawrence and Shaun Etherington and Nick Webb from Wisbech, conquered the energy-sapping challenge of tackling the UK’s highest mountains to raise money for Cancer Research.

The four men from Fenland joined seven colleagues from Mars’ factory in King’s Lynn in travelling 480 miles in a mini-bus on June 14 and 15 as part of the task.

Nine members of the team - including Mr Bradshaw - reached the summits of Scotland’s Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Snowdon in Wales, climbing 11,000ft in the process.

Mr Bradshaw, 33, said: “The Fens isn’t the hilliest place in the world so we’ve just walked a lot to build our muscles up during training.

“I just can’t believe how hard it actually was. We’d tackled some of the peaks during our training but to do it one after the other was exhausting. We are a really close-knit group so we helped each other get through it when one of us was struggling.

“When we finished we had smiles like Cheshire cats, it was an unbelievable feeling. I couldn’t have thought of a better group of lads to do it with - it took a mammoth team effort to complete it.”

The average age of the summit-conquering team - who work in the maintenance department of the factory which produces Uncle Ben’s rice and other foods - was 39.5 years.

Paul Thacker, Dave Holliday, Paul Whiting, Marc and Gavin Kimber, Dennis Mitchell and Michael Clarke made up the 11-man team.

Mr Bradshaw also praised four colleagues, Richard Levitt, Bob Baird, Steve Clarke and Dave Foster who completed 12-hour shifts in order for the team to complete their challenge.

• The group have already raised more than �1,000 for Cancer Research but hope to donate �5,000. Mars have said they will match up to �200 per person for what each member raises. People can sponsor the group at www.justgiving.com/paulthacker