A GROUP of fire-fighting volunteers have climbed the equivalent of Mount Everest in just over five hours.

A GROUP of fire-fighting volunteers have climbed the equivalent of Mount Everest in just over five hours.

Thirteen members of the Adastral Park Emergency Services, at Martlesham Heath, ascended 8,850 metres by running up a ladder.

They each had an average of 40 seconds for every climb up the 13-metre ladder, which was placed up against one of BT's buildings on the site.

The mammoth effort was to raise money for a specialist bed for the Somersham Ward's cancer unit support group at Ipswich Hospital.

Andrew Clark, station officer with the BT volunteer fire-fighting team, was one of the members who took part in the stunt. He said: “We were all in a line at the bottom of the ladder and we went up the ladder, down and round to the back of the line. By the time we got to the bottom we had about two minutes break, which was enough to get our breaths back before we went up again.

“It was quite hard in the end. Hopefully we have at least raised our £3,000 target.”

He said they wanted to raise the money after an ex-team member was diagnosed with cancer and they realised many people they knew had been affected by the disease either directly or indirectly.