THREE charities who helped a young West Somerset woman as she battled terminal cancer will share a £14,500 pot of cash following the phenomenal success of a fundraising challenge in her memory.

Teacher Emma Harris, from Alcombe, died in March aged just 29 after a year-long fight against the disease.

But her husband Justin wanted to give something back to the organisations which helped the couple cope through such a terrifying time.

So he roped in friends Richard Henson, Tom White and John Webber to tackle the Three Peaks Challenge, climbing three mountains within 24 hours.

The foursome completed the tough task in July, successfully climbing up and down Scotland’s Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Snowdon in Wales – and driving between each location – in just 19 hours 57 minutes and 32 seconds.

Their original aim had been to raise a total of £3,000 to be split between St Margaret’s Hospice in Taunton, the Bristol-based Penny Brohn Centre, which offers a holistic approach for cancer sufferers, and Hope for Tomorrow, a charity dedicated to bringing cancer treatment closer to patients’ homes with mobile chemotherapy units.

But this week Justin revealed that the final fundraising tally was almost five times higher than the target.

“We live in a small community here in Minehead and I appreciate we are all regularly asked to donate to so many worthy causes,” he said.

“So it makes it so more touching that we have been able to raise so much money in memory of Emma.

“At the outset when we thought of what we could do to raise money for the charities that helped Emma and I so much we wanted to test ourselves and felt that the Three Peaks Challenge would tick that box.

“It certainly did – mentally and physically we were all pushed to our limits but driven on by the enormous support from all our friends, families and businesses back home and around the world.”

The mountain climbers have already started handing out the money raised and so far have made donations of £4,000 each to St Margaret’s Hospice and the Penny Brohn Centre.

At the hospice, the money will fund counselling for more than 50 people with a life limiting illness, while Penny Brohn will use it to pay for 112 people to attend one of their recuperation courses for those receiving cancer treatment.

Hope for Tomorrow, meanwhile, will use its share to fund 50 per cent of its annual running costs for its mobile chemotherapy units.

“We want to thank everyone who has supported us – they have all made a difference,” said Justin.