MORE than 30 colleagues at a Winsford-based bus company scaled Mount Snowdon in memory of a ‘dear friend’.

Mick Gash, who worked in customer services for Arriva, had been due to take on the epic climb with co-workers but died after a short illness last year aged just 63.

But friend and colleague of five years Michael Davies, 59, who works as a ticket inspector at the depot in Road Four on the industrial estate, decided to go ahead with the walk in his honour.

The Church Lawton resident said: “He was a great friend who did a lot of walking. He promised me that one day we would walk up Snowdon, four of us were going to do it together, we even set a date.

“But sadly Mick got very ill very quickly and died so at his funeral we decided we would do the walk in his memory and get some sponsorship.”

The group chose Help for Heroes as their charity and set about getting other arriva employees to join in and the figure soon swelled from four to 31.

“It really took off”, Michael added. “Arriva leant us a double decker bus to get there and paid for certificates, medals and baseball caps for everyone.

“And people from all three Arriva depots in Winsford, Runcorn and Birkenhead signed up for it, his two daughters also joined in.

“The whole walk took about eight and a half hours because there were people of all abilities but it was a wonderful day and a great tribute to Mick.”

The team raised £3,400 which will be used to buy an electronic leg for a soldier recently injured in Afghanistan.