A FORMER York MP has tackled Yorkshire’s three highest mountains in aid of a charity which he helped a friend set up.

Sir Hugh Bayley, 67, of Fishergate in York, has completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge. He walked 40 kilometres and took on the peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough within a day.

He managed to finish the challenge in just over 13 hours.

Sir Hugh has raised just over £1,265 for Drill2Drink, which he helped his late friend Roger Trask to set up and is now a trustee for the charity.

He took on the challenge with two other trustees of the charity - Jim Johnson and Sue Alderson. Together they have raised more than £2,000, and this has taken an appeal by Drill2Drink past the £30,000 needed to fund the drilling of a borehole for fresh water in a village in Tanzania.

Hugh said: “I surprised myself by completing the Three Peaks Challenge in a day.

“All my training paid off, though the challenge was twice as far as any of the training hikes.”

Drill2Drink’s project to drill a water borehole in Londoto, Tanzania, came about after Roger, who died of cancer earlier this year, climbed Kilimanjaro a couple of years ago.

Sir Hugh explained: “Roger was shocked to find out about the conditions of life in his mountain guide’s, Juma Hemedi’s, village, Londoto. He promised Juma he’d raise money for a clean water supply, and asked my advice about to do so. To begin with we tried to find a UK charity who would drill a well if we raised the money, but could not find one which would do it in this remote part of Tanzania, so we set up Drill2Drink and got it registered as a charity to do it ourselves.

“Sadly Roger died earlier this year so it is great that the project is now going ahead in his memory.”

He added that the Three Peaks Challenge fundraising has allowed the charity to go ahead with the project in Londoto.

Sir Hugh has thanked all of his sponsors and said: “Their generosity will improve the lives of hundreds of people in Tanzania who live on very low incomes.”

Anyone who wishes to donate to the charity should visit: http://www.drill2drink.co.uk

Sir Bayley was MP for York Central until 2015, having held the City of York seat from 1992 to the 2010 general election, when boundary changes took effect.