A group of friends took on a gruelling physical challenge to raise funds for a local hospice in memory of their friend.

Bev Edwards came up with the idea of taking on the Tough Mudder challenge to raise funds for the East Lancashire Hospice who took care of her friend in her final days.

Bev, 37, from Rhyddings Street in Oswaldtwistle, said: “I came up with the mad idea of participating in the Tough Mudder whilst visiting my friend Heather in Blackburn hospice during the last eight weeks of her life.

“Every member of staff and the volunteers from the cleaning staff to the doctors are kind, caring and professional, everyone is willing to go that extra mile to help a patient who requires this specialist care.

“I was so impressed with everything at the hospice I had to do something to raise money so they can continue to help other people.”

Bev, a production engineer, said she was soon joined by Heather’s niece Faye and four others who were passionate about raising funds for the hospice, and adopted the team name Birds of a Heather.

She said: “For the last six months an average week had been gym, boot camp, 10km bike ride. The Tough Mudder took over our lives!”

Despite the gruelling conditions of the challenge, Bev and her team successfully completed the course and raised £1,783 through sponsorship for the hospice.

She added: “I just want to thank my team mates, they do not know this, but they have carried me through the last year. The training hasn’t been a chore, but an enjoyable journey because of them. I don’t think I could have got through this without them. We did it with our smile on our faces and blisters on our feet.”

Bev said the tough challenge resulted in a few injuries for members of the team.

She added: “I’ve still got a little injury that’s niggling me, one of our team tore ligaments in their knee on the second to last obstacle so we carried them to the end.

“We will definitely be doing more fundraising challenges as Birds of a Heather, we’re planning on doing the Manchester 10K and an event called X Runner.

“We would like to thank everyone who has donated; every pound gave us the strength and determination to complete this insane task.”