irishcar.com

3 July 2002: More than 150 fit fundraisers – including celebrities from sport and television – will this Thursday gather at Carantouhill, near Killarney, for the final leg of one of Europe’s most physically gruelling challenges.

Around 50 teams of three athletes are set to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for disabled and disadvantaged children by running up and down four mountains – more than 14,000ft - in under 48 hours.

The Wooden Spoon Society’s Opel Four Peaks Challenge includes the peaks of Ben Nevis in Scotland, Helvellyn in England, Snowdon in Wales, and Carantouhill in south west Ireland.

England rugby legends Dean Richards and Peter Wheeler – who will carry the Zurich Premiership Plate to each summit - and John McArdle, the star of the BBC police drama Mersey Beat, are among those taking part.

Each team has a driver who will ferry their athletic trio around 1,900 miles as they travel from peak to peak. Opel has supplied each of the teams with a vehicle. In the past five years alone the event has raised more than £2 million for Wooden Spoon projects for disabled and disadvantaged children across the country.

Exhausted competitors will be greeted by a jazz band supplied by Guinness as they cross the finishing line at Carantouhill around 48 hours after the start in Scotland. They will later celebrate in style at a Guinness-sponsored reception.

Each team is committed to raising £3,500 in an event which has traditionally seen money donated exceed that pledged by 106%. Other sponsors include Karrimor International (supplying clothing), Bioforce (massage support), Guinness (celebration party in Ireland), Walon (administration), Irish Ferries (Irish Sea crossing) and Science in Sport (energy drinks).

The Wooden Spoon Society was formed in Dublin in 1983 when a group of English rugby supporters were presented with a wooden spoon by their Irish hosts to symbolise England coming last in the annual Five Nations championship.

The charity of the four home nations’ rugby unions, the Society raises an average of £25,000 per week and has around 6,500. Money is raised from active events for projects to support disabled and disadvantaged youngsters, helping the Society live up to its motto: "Wooden Spoon Stirs Smiles.