ESDU Engineer

The Three Peaks Challenge

Every September, hardy individuals throughout the UK organise themselves into teams to take part in the ‘Three Peaks Challenge’ and raise money for good causes. This is a gruelling event that involves the teams climbing the highest mountains in England (Scafell Pike: 978 m/3206 ft), Scotland (Ben Nevis: 1344 m/4406 ft) and Wales (Snowdon:1085 m/3560 ft) - all in 24 hours! The challenge involves covering 27 miles on foot, and a further 1200 miles by car.

This year, IHS was delighted to sponsor two UK IHS teams in the challenge, one from IHS ESDU in London and another from the IHS UK headquarters in Bracknell. The weather proved to be unseasonably cold, wet and windy, with very poor visibility on higher ground adding to the difficulties. We are happy to report that, despite the appalling weather conditions, both teams were able to raise a significant amount of money for charity from their friends, colleagues and ESDU Committee members.

The IHS ESDU team walked to support the great work of the charity ‘Merlin’. The team comprised four walkers - Neil Dev-Anand (Senior Aerospace Engineer), Richard Sayers (Senior Performance Engineer), John Hammar (Senior Engineer: Liaison and Mechanisms), and Chrysoula Nousiou (Interactive Graphs Project Controller). Equally valuable to the success of the team were Francesca Iudicello (Head of Fluid Mechanics, Internal Flow) and David Gallagher (Senior Software Engineer), who shared the driving duties and supported the walkers.

Merlin (www.merlin.org.uk) is the only specialist UK agency which responds worldwide with vital health care and medical relief for vulnerable people caught up in natural disasters, conflict, disease and health system collapse. Merlin directly helped over 5 million people in 2006. Merlin’s vision is of a world that provides basic health care to all, responds immediately to save lives in times of crisis, and looks beyond emergencies to safeguard long-term health.

All the team’s colleagues at IHS would like to thank the team members for their extraordinary efforts. Some twenty corporate teams from UK businesses took part in this charity event and raised, collectively, over £31000 for this great cause.

For more information visit www.esdu.com.