AN Irvine fitness fanatic climbed Britain’s three highest mountains to help give a five-year-old life-saving cancer treatment.

Drew Wilson joined a team of fundraisers on the daunting Three Peaks challenge to raise money for the family of Tilly Sharkey who needs treatment in America costing £16,000 after being diagnosed with a rare brain tumour.

And the group managed to raise over £15,000 by incredibly tackling Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in just 24 hours.

That helps bring the total to over £90,000 which has been raised thanks to a worldwide appeal and a series of fundraising efforts.

Tilly’s story touched the whole community in her hometown of Ayr including Drew’s pal Paul Doherty who was inspired to take on the mammoth challenge.

They were joined by Kris Conway, Stuart Shearer, Clare McCallum, Callum McGill and Zico Van Heddegem.

The fundraiser was hard enough to begin with but Drew, who co-owns the DuaL Fitness gym in Dundonald, suffered a knee injury in the process.

That meant he missed the 24-hour time limit but powered through to reach the finish line.

Drew said: “We started at Ben Nevis early in the morning and that lasted five-and-a-half hours.

“That was tough and we were immediately thinking ‘what’s the rest of it going to be like?’

“We drove straight to the Lake District and we absolutely hammered it in about three hours, an hour-and-a-half quicker than what’s recommended but we were trying to keep up with the time.

“I did some driving to Snowdon and we just jumped out and started at 3am in the pitch black.

“That turned out quite well for me though because I’m afraid of heights so I couldn’t see exactly what I was facing!”

He added: “Scaffel Pike was definitely the hardest but at Snowdon we were shattered.

“The final stretch was an absolute slog we kept stopping every five minutes.

“When I got to the top I just didn’t feel right and my knee just gave way.

“We were at the top for 6am and we had to be at the bottom for 8.30am to make the 24 hours. I wasn’t happy because I ended up having a time 90 minutes behind them, it took me four-and-a-half hours to get down.

“I’ve never felt pain like it in my life!”

Drew suffered an IT band extension and a potential lateral meniscus tear but won’t require any surgery.

He added: “I felt a bit down after it but it was absolutely amazing to take part and help raise some money for Tilly.

“I’m only doing upper body work in the gym now, I’m out of lower work for the next few weeks!”