An Aberdeen firefighter who suffered a cardiac arrest at just 22 made it to the top of three of the UK’s highest mountains in 24 hours in a bid to raise awareness of undiagnosed heart conditions in young people.
Greg Wilson, 24, and his colleagues from the city’s Central Fire Station made it to the top of Mount Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, with a climbing time of just 11 hours and 50 minutes.
Mr Wilson, who lives in Aberdeen, suffered a cardiac arrest in 2012 and was saved by his quick thinking brothers who managed to keep his heart going until paramedics were able to get him to hospital, where he was diagnosed with an underlying heart condition.
Now in a bid to raise money for charities who work to raise awareness of heart problems in young people, Mr Wilson, his brothers Graham, 27 and Dominic, 18, and his colleagues have completed the gruelling Three Peak Challenge.
After some gentle persuading, 11 of his co-workers signed up to support him in climbing the three highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales.
Including driving between the mountains, it took the group 23hr 30min to complete their task.
So far the group has raised £5,000 for the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary’s Coronary Care Unit, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS UK.)
The group set off at 830am on Monday, July 21 and despite “plenty of complaining” towards the end, their mammoth challenge was completed by 8am the following morning.
First on their list of peaks to challenge was Mount Snowdon in Gwynedd, Wales.
It took the group just three hours and 15 minutes to get to the top and back down the 3,560 ft mountain.
Next they made their way to the Lake District to take on the 3,209 ft Scafell Pike.
The group took just three hours and ten minutes to make it to the summit and back to the base. Mr Wilson and his co-workers saved the hardest for last, driving back to Scotland to take on the 4,409 ft Ben Nevis.
Starting the daunting challenge to climb the country’s highest peak at 2.30am it took the group five hours and 25 minutes, meaning that the total climbing time for the group was 11hr 50mins.
He said: “It was tougher than we thought it would be, but we got it done.”
Mr Wilson, who spent three weeks in hospital after his cardiac arrest, said: “I was in intensive care in Inverness and they put me in an induced coma for a day to let me recover, then I was transferred down to Aberdeen.
“They were able to diagnose me and it was a relatively simple procedure to fix it, so I was able to go back to work.
He added: “The only real reason I was able to come through was my brothers, and they won’t let me forget that.”