Seven employees from UPS delivery services are set to take on the Three Peaks Challenge in 24 hours to raise money for Derby charity Safe and Sound.

Mark Cleaver, Parm Johal, Stephen Codd, Mick Smith, Pawel Bogucki, Adam Croft and Phil Tatchell are planning to scale Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon.

They will set off at 6am on Saturday, July 25th and are aiming to complete the trek by 6am on Sunday, July 26th.

The group all work for UPS, at the East Midlands Airport hub, and the company is covering the cost of cars hired to travel between each mountain.

Mark said he decided to do the challenge for Safe and Sound after hearing about their work to tackle child sexual exploitation.

He said: “I was coming back to Derby from London on the train and I overheard two people talking about Safe and Sound and as we were going to do the Three Peaks I thought it would be good to raise money for them.

“I've always believed that you can measure how well a society, or community, is doing by looking at how well it looks after its young people and its old people.

“So the work of Safe and Sound with its educating and work with young people, social services and the police is vital. This is why we're very happy to be raising any money we can.”

Mark said the team had done a practice walk to Belper and completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge last year.

He said: “Six out of the seven team members completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge last August within the 12-hour time limit. All the team are strong walkers and although the challenge is more mental than physical, it’s usually a mixture of fitness and great organisation that carries the day.”

Nathalie Walters, chief executive of Safe and Sound, thanked the UPS employees for their support.

She said: “We would like to thank them for deciding to support us and it’s very kind of them to choose us out of all the charities that they could have helped.

“We are extremely grateful to them and the money they raise will be used to help us in our ongoing fight to tackle child sexual exploitation.

“The work we do is extremely important and as a charity we rely on grants and donations so if anyone out there would like to help us by raising money we would be more than happy to hear from them.”

Anyone who would like to donate to the UPS challenge can visit www.justgiving.com/threepeaksUPS

Notes to editors: Safe and Sound was set up in 2002 to support victims of child sexual exploitation and also works to prevent young men and women from becoming victims in the first place.