A group of Aberystwyth postmen have completed a mammoth challenge and raised over £1,500 for a children’s charity.
Rob Crumpler, James Shield, Jamie Martin, Tom Kerton, Rob Makaruk, Sion Jenkins and Huw Griffiths walked 25 miles along the coastal path from New Quay to Aberystwyth, on Sunday, 23 May, to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital, after James’ son had to spend time there receiving treatment.
So far, they have raised £1,763, but are waiting to hear whether Royal Mail will double this total.
On the day, the postmen met at a friend’s house at 5.30am before they were taken to New Quay, the starting point for their challenge, at 6.30am.
“It was good, everything went pretty well until about Llanrhystud and then the weather turned,” Rob Crumpler said. “We got a bit of a soaking then until Aberystwyth.”
They finished the challenge at 4pm.
“We expected it to take longer, but we just cracked on with it,” said Rob. “We knew the weather was coming in and we wanted to get it done as soon as possible. We did expect it to be tougher. Because there was seven of us, we kept each other going. It was quite a laugh actually.
“We would like to thank Michael Jones and Ian Pugh; Mike provided us with sausage baps at 5.30am and then he and Ian took us down to New Quay.
“Ian was with us throughout the day, meeting us at various points. He had a tin with him as well so he was collecting money and telling people what was going on.”