A BROMYARD man battled severe storms as he climbed three of the country's highest mountains last weekend.

Not put off by the weather, Pete Jackson, 71, trekked up Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis raised more than £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation.

Mr Jackson's original plan was to take some of the poppies which were made from plastic bottles by local schools and community groups last year to commemorate the First World War.

Local primary schools had made labels to be attached to the poppies, but the challenging weather conditions meant it wasn't possible to lay them.

After good weather during the first hike up Ben Nevis, setting off at 5am on Saturday morning, by the time they reached the peak of Scafell Pike in Cumbria, gale force winds and heavy rain made reaching the summit "unsafe".

Mr Jackson said: "We set off in the dark with head torches on, but because of the heavy winds our guides said it wasn't safe to go on the summit.

"We couldn't lay the poppies so we went back down after a good soaking and blown to bits.

"We arrived at Snowdon and it was still bucketing down. We started at 6am on Sunday morning and it was just like walking up a stream.

"The time limit on doing the Three Peaks is 15 hours and we came in just under that, as a 71-year-old I'm chuffed with that."