AN EVEREST CLIMB IN MEMORY OF THE CHAPLAIN

In a highly unusual and extremely tiring charity event, members of RAF Gibraltar have climbed to the top of the Rock 22 times in 24 hours. This makes a total climb equal to the height of Mount Everest. One of the charities to benefit from their efforts will be the Handicapped Children's Pilgrimage Trust whose Secretary and Treasurer was the late Chaplain John Hill.

'Our biggest problem was definitely the afternoon heat,' said Sgt Mick Rimmer. 'We started at midday so that we would be dealing with the hottest part of the day when we were at our freshest.'

Sgt Rimmer, Flight Lieutenant Ade Lutman and Cpl Dave Lockey completed all twenty-two but, at various stages, they were joined by up to twenty others, including two BFBS presenters. Colonel Jim Mitchell, Chief of Staff at HQBF, joined them in the early hours of the morning.

'The night-time hours were a long slog but we had people walking with us almost all the time which really helped,' added Mick Rimmer.

'We are really grateful to MH Bland and to the Tourist Office,' said Flt Lt Lutman. 'Each time we have walked up to the top, we came down again in the cable car - at least during the day. At night, an RAF vehicle brought us down. And the Tourist Office has helped us in lots of ways as well.'

Other help has been forthcoming from local firms who donated prizes for a competition which required Servicemen to estimate how many steps would be needed to climb the Rock twenty-two times.

So far, over £1000 has been raised - a sum that will be divided between the BFBS 'Big Salute' charity and the Handicapped Children's Pilgrimage Trust (HCPT). 'It is a tragic irony that HCPT was Chaplain John Hill's charity and he planned to walk some of the way with us,' said Ade Lutman. 'Sadly John passed away on Tuesday so, whenever the going got really tough, we were thinking of him.'

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